1.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
2.
Guy's Cliffe
–
Guys Cliffe is a hamlet on the River Avon on the Coventry Road between Warwick and Leek Wootton in Warwickshire, England, near Old Milverton. in the civil parish of Leek Wootton and Guys Cliffe. Formerly the smallest Parish in England, it was merged with Leek Wootton to become Leek Wootton and Guys Cliffe Parish Council. The name Guys Cliffe originates from the name of the house and estate that the land belonged to. The house has been in a state since the late 20th century. Guys Cliffe has been occupied since Saxon times and derives its name from the legendary Guy of Warwick, Guy is supposed to have retired to a hermitage on this site, this legend led to the founding of a chantry. The chantry was established in 1423 as the Chapel of St Mary Magdelene, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII the site passed into private hands. The current, ruined house dates from 1751 and was started by Samuel Greatheed, the estate also comprised a mill, stables, kitchen garden and land as far as Blacklow Hill. Blacklow Hill is north-west of the house and it is the site of an ancient settlement and the location of Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwalls murder. In 1308 Edward II travelled to Boulogne to marry Isabella, leaving Piers Gaveston, resentment against Edwards rule and Gavestons position of power grew, some barons began to insist Gaveston be banished. Edward could do little to prevent Gaveston being captured in 1312 under the orders of the Earl of Lancaster and he was captured first by the Earl of Warwick, whom he was seen to have offended, and handed over to two Welshmen. They took him to Blacklow Hill and murdered him, one ran him through the heart with his sword, the house was used as a hospital during World War I and in the World War II became a school for evacuated children. Guys Cliffe estate was broken up and sold in 1947, in 1952 the mill became a pub and restaurant and was named The Saxon Mill, the stables became a riding school, the kitchen garden became a nursery, all of which still exist today. A toll house stood by the road to the north of the Saxon Mill. The new owner of the house intended to convert it into a hotel, but these came to nothing. In 1955 the house was purchased by Aldwyn Porter and the chapel leased to the Freemasons, the roof had fallen in by 1966. In 1992 during the filming of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a fire scene got out of control, english Heritage has given the building grade II listed status. One new hous was built within the grounds, Guys Cliffe House (note, the house and by the 1980s, when the parishes merged. The new boundary split the estate, the stables and nursery are not within the current Parish of Leek Wootton & Guys Cliffe
3.
Warwick Castle
–
Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from an original built by William the Conqueror in 1068. Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England, situated on a bend of the River Avon, the original wooden motte-and-bailey castle was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. During the Hundred Years War, the facade opposite the town was refortified and it was used as a stronghold until the early 17th century, when it was granted to Sir Fulke Greville by James I in 1604. Greville converted it to a house and it was owned by the Greville family. In 2007, the Tussauds Group merged with Merlin Entertainments, which is the current owner of Warwick Castle, Warwick Castle is situated in the town of Warwick, on a sandstone bluff at a bend of the River Avon. The river, which runs below the castle on the east side, has eroded the rock the castle stands on, the river and cliff form natural defences. When construction began in 1068, four belonging to the Abbot of Coventry were demolished to provide room. The castles position made it important in safeguarding the Midlands against rebellion. During the 12th century, King Henry I was suspicious of Roger de Beaumont, to counter the earls influence, Henry bestowed Geoffrey de Clinton with a position of power rivalling that of the earl. The lands he was given included Kenilworth – a castle of comparable size, cost, Warwick Castle is about 1.6 kilometres from Warwick railway station and less than 3.2 kilometres from junction 15 of the M40 motorway, it is also close to Birmingham Airport. An Anglo-Saxon burh was established on the site in 914, with fortifications instigated by Ethelfleda, the burh she established was one of ten which defended Mercia against the invading Danes. Its position allowed it to dominate the Fosse Way, as well as the river valley, though the motte to the south-west of the present castle is now called Ethelfledas Mound, it is in fact part of the later Norman fortifications, and not of Anglo-Saxon origin. After the Norman conquest of England, William the Conqueror established a castle at Warwick in 1068 to maintain control of the Midlands as he advanced northwards. Building a castle in a settlement could require demolishing properties on the intended site. In the case of Warwick, the least recorded of the 11 urban castles in the 1086 survey, a motte-and-bailey castle consists of a mound – on which usually stands a keep or tower – and a bailey, which is an enclosed courtyard. William appointed Henry de Beaumont, the son of a powerful Norman family, in 1088, Henry de Beaumont was made the first Earl of Warwick. He founded the Church of All Saints within the walls by 1119. According to the Gesta Regis Stephani, a 12th-century historical text, Henry later returned the castle to the Earls of Warwick as they had been supporters of his mother, Empress Matilda, in The Anarchy of 1135–1154
4.
Engraving
–
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it. Wood engraving is a form of printing and is not covered in this article. Engraving was an important method of producing images on paper in artistic printmaking, in mapmaking. Other terms often used for printed engravings are copper engraving, copper-plate engraving or line engraving, hand engraving is a term sometimes used for engraving objects other than printing plates, to inscribe or decorate jewellery, firearms, trophies, knives and other fine metal goods. Traditional engravings in printmaking are also engraved, using just the same techniques to make the lines in the plate. Each graver is different and has its own use, engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin, or graver, to cut the design into the surface, most traditionally a copper plate. Modern professional engravers can engrave with a resolution of up to 40 lines per mm in high grade work creating game scenes, dies used in mass production of molded parts are sometimes hand engraved to add special touches or certain information such as part numbers. In addition to engraving, there are engraving machines that require less human finesse and are not directly controlled by hand. They are usually used for lettering, using a pantographic system, there are versions for the insides of rings and also the outsides of larger pieces. Such machines are used for inscriptions on rings, lockets. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types, the burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. The angle tint tool has a curved tip that is commonly used in printmaking. Florentine liners are flat-bottomed tools with multiple lines incised into them, ring gravers are made with particular shapes that are used by jewelry engravers in order to cut inscriptions inside rings. Flat gravers are used for work on letters, as well as wriggle cuts on most musical instrument engraving work, remove background. Knife gravers are for line engraving and very deep cuts, round gravers, and flat gravers with a radius, are commonly used on silver to create bright cuts, as well as other hard-to-cut metals such as nickel and steel. Square or V-point gravers are typically square or elongated diamond-shaped and used for cutting straight lines, V-point can be anywhere from 60 to 130 degrees, depending on purpose and effect. These gravers have very small cutting points, other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects. Burnishing tools can also be used for stone setting techniques
5.
Ireland
–
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
6.
Portugal
–
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
7.
Dublin
–
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
8.
Bermuda
–
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 1,070 km east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina,1,236 km south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Bermuda is an associate member of Caribbean Community. The first person known to have reached Bermuda was the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez in 1503 and he claimed the islands for the Spanish Empire. Bermúdez never landed on the islands, but made two visits to the archipelago, of which he created a recognisable map, shipwrecked Portuguese mariners are now thought to have been responsible for the 1543 inscription on Portuguese Rock. Subsequent Spanish or other European parties are believed to have released pigs there, the island was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614. Its spin-off, the Somers Isles Company, took over in 1615, at that time, the companys charter was revoked, and the English Crown took over administration. The islands became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the parliaments of Scotland and England, after 1949, when Newfoundland became part of Canada, Bermuda became the oldest remaining British Overseas Territory. Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it is the most populous Territory and its first capital, St. Georges, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. Bermudas economy is based on insurance and reinsurance, and tourism. Bermuda had one of the worlds highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century, recently, its economic status has been affected by the global recession. The island is in the belt and prone to severe weather. However, it is protected from the full force of a hurricane by the coral reef that surrounds the island. It is 898 nautical miles northeast of Miami, Florida, and 667 nautical miles from Cape Sable Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada. The islands lie due east of Fripp Island, South Carolina, west-northwest of Cape Verde, southeast of New York City, New York, north-northwest of Brazil and north of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The archipelago is formed by points on the rim of the caldera of a submarine volcano that forms a seamount. The volcano is one part of a range that was formed as part of the process that formed the floor of the Atlantic. It has 103 km of coastline, the two incorporated municipalities in Bermuda are the City of Hamilton and the Town of St George. Bermuda is divided into nine parishes, which have some localities called villages, such as Flatts Village, although usually referred to in the singular, the territory consists of 181 islands, with a total area of 53.3 square kilometres
9.
New Brunswick
–
New Brunswick is one of Canadas three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province. In the Canada 2016 Census, Statistics Canada estimated the population to have been 747,101, down very slightly from 751,171 in 2011. The majority of the population is English-speaking of Anglo and Celtic heritage and it was created as a result of the partitioning of the British colony of Nova Scotia in 1784 and was originally named New Ireland with the capital to be in Saint John. The name was replaced with New Brunswick by King George II. The provincial flag features a ship superimposed on a background with a yellow lion passant guardant on red pennon above it. The province is named for the city of Braunschweig, known in English and Low German as Brunswick, located in modern-day Lower Saxony in northern Germany. The then-colony was named in 1784 to honour the reigning British monarch, George III, the original First Nations inhabitants of New Brunswick were members of three distinct tribes. The largest tribe was the Mikmaq, and they occupied the eastern and they were responsible for the Augustine Mound, a burial ground built about 800 BCE near Metepnákiaq. The western portion of the province was the home of the Wolastoqiyik people. The smaller Passamaquoddy tribe occupied lands in the southwest of the province. The next French contact was in 1604, when a party led by Pierre du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain set up camp for the winter on St. Croix Island, the colony relocated the following year across the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal, Nova Scotia. The whole maritime region was at that time claimed by France and was designated as the colony of Acadia, one of the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 was the surrender of Acadia to Queen Anne. The bulk of the Acadian population thus found themselves residing in the new British colony of Nova Scotia, the remainder of Acadia was only lightly populated and poorly defended. The Maliseet from their headquarters at Meductic on the Saint John River, participated in guerilla raids and battles against New England during Father Rales War. About 1750, to protect his interests in New France, Louis XV caused three forts to be built along the Isthmus of Chignecto and this caused what is known to historians as Father Le Loutres War. During the French and Indian War, the British completed their displacement of the Acadians over all of present-day New Brunswick, Fort Beauséjour, Fort Menagoueche and Fort Gaspareaux were captured by a British force commanded by Lt. Col. Robert Monckton in 1755. Inside Fort Beauséjour, the British forces found not only French regular troops, Governor Charles Lawrence of Nova Scotia used the discovery of Acadian civilians helping in the defence of the fort to order the expulsion of the Acadian population from Nova Scotia. The Acadians of the recently captured Beaubassin and Petitcodiac regions were included in the expulsion order, other actions in the war included British expeditions up the Saint John River in the St. John River Campaign
10.
Driffield
–
Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield, according to the 2011 UK census, Driffield parish had a population of 13,080, an increase on the 2001 UK census figure of 11,477. A Bronze Age mound outside Driffield was excavated in the 19th century and it includes a knife, a dagger, a beaker and a greenstone wrist-guard all dating to between 2200 and 1500 BC. Driffield lies in the Yorkshire Wolds, on the Driffield Navigation, Driffield lies on the A614, A166 and B1249, and on the Yorkshire Coast rail line from Scarborough to Hull. It is situated next to Little Driffield, where King Aldfrith of Northumbria was reputedly buried, Driffield is named the Capital of the Wolds, mainly through virtue of its favourable location between Bridlington, Beverley and York. The town is served by Driffield railway station on the Yorkshire Coast Line, the place-name Driffield is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, and means dirty field. There is also an area of close to the parish church alongside the stream that runs roughly parallel to the high street. Driffield is a part of the Driffield and Rural electoral ward. This ward stretches north west to Sledmere with a population taken at the 2011 Census of 15,199. The local cattle market, despite former glories, closed after the 2001 UK foot, public houses include the Original Keys, the Buck, the Full Measure, the Rose and Crown and the Mariners Arms. More recently an excellent micro-pub The Butchers Dog has opened, serving a regularly changing selection of craft beers and ciders. Old standbys to the catering services include the Water Margin, Marco Polo. The towns main hotel is the Bell Hotel, an old coaching inn in the centre of the town and its many facilities include the former town hall, which was bought by the hotels owner and is now a function suite and gym/leisure centre. Recent additions to the towns night-time scene include Georgies, Hotel Forty One, more recently, the former Norseman pub and Mavericks night club have been converted into a single premises which is being operated by J D Wetherspoon. A particular focus is placed upon agricultural history, with demonstrations of ploughing and threshing often taking place, the rally is particularly known for the Saturday evening road-run of the steam engines and other vehicles into Driffield town centre, an event which invariably attracts large crowds of spectators. There are two infant schools, one primary school and a large secondary school, known simply as Driffield School. Driffield School contains a form, and so offers education up to A level standard. The nearest independent school is Woodleigh School, North Yorkshire, the church dedicated to All Saints was designated a Grade I listed building in 1963 and is now recorded in the National Heritage List for England, maintained by Historic England
11.
Edward Joseph Lowe
–
Lowe was affectionately known as The Big Snowflake because of his beard. Lowe was born in Highfield House, University Park, Nottinghamshire, the son of Alfred J. Lowe, he began his scientific observations at the age of 15. Alfred was a member of national and local astronomical societies and was particularly interested in meteorology. His interest in ferns led to his studying them and his most noted work was Ferns, British and Exotic and consisted of eight illustrated volumes published in London by Groombridge and Sons in 1856. The bookplates of which were drawn by A. F. Lydon and he collaborated on observations of luminous meteors with Professor Baden Powell of Oxford. Lowe invented the dry powder test for ozone in the atmosphere and he was one of the founders and original Fellows of the Meteorological Society and a Fellow of the Royal, the Geological, the Linnean, the Royal Astronomical and other learned Societies. His candidature citation for the Royal Society read, The Author of A Treatise on Atmospheric Phenomena Prognostications of the weather or signs of atmospheric changes, distinguished for his acquaintance with the sciences of Meteorology & Natural History. Eminent asa Meteorologist - Having Published works on that Science, - and being actively employed in the cultivation of it After the Great Exhibition of 1851, plans were launched for a public observatory in Nottingham. Henry Lawson offered his collection of telescopes, but the project failed through lack of government funding. Lawson persuaded Lowe to accept the instruments for an observatory at Broadgate House, in Beeston, Nottinghamshire which opened in 1855, with a rotating cupola roof. The Beeston Observatory was mainly for meteorological observations, as well as the usual meteorological instruments it included an Earthquake Pendulum, which ascended 33 ft to the top of the building. The pendulum rod was of wood and terminated in a loaded bulb of brass. When the top of the building was distributed by the shock of an earthquake, at the top of the house, he installed Electrometers with lighting wires conducted from trees around the building. These were fed to two gilded balls and cylinders for determining the negative and positive character of the electricity and the relative amount, lowes father, Alfred also built another observatory in Beeston behind some houses on Lilac Grove near Beeston railway station. This survived until it was demolished in 1965, in 1882 he moved from Beeston to Shirenewton Hall, near Chepstow, Monmouthshire, where he died on 10 March 1900. Beautiful-Leaved Plants, being a Description of the Most Beautiful-Leaved Plants in Cultivation in this Country, Groombridge, London 1864 This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation E. J. Lowe when citing a botanical name. Media related to Edward Joseph Lowe at Wikimedia Commons Ferns and Pteridomania in Victorian Scotland Ferns, British and Exotic
12.
Benjamin Fawcett
–
Benjamin Fawcett was one of the finest of English nineteenth century woodblock colour printers. The son of a master, he was apprenticed at age 14 for seven years to William Forth. In 1831 he started his own business in Middle Street, Driffield and he married Mary Ann Woodmansey in 1830, from whom he had two sons before her death in 1834. He was married again in 1848, to Martha Porter, and raised a family of four daughters. His early works were mostly childrens books published by Webb & Millington of Leeds, in about 1845 he formed a close working association with Francis Orpen Morris. This relationship would last nearly 50 years and have an effect on British ornithology. Morris wrote the text for books which were financed and printed by Fawcett, and were engraved by Alexander Francis Lydon, Colour printing was a major change from the much-admired monochrome work of Thomas Bewick. At first wood-engraving illustrations were coloured by hand, but later a system of colouring from multiple wood blocks was used, hand-coloured wood engraving started with an accurate painting of the subject. This picture was then carved on a block, standing proud in order to pick up the ink. The block was placed in a printing press to give a black-and-white print. The wooden print blocks were carved with great attention detail, pear and boxwood were sufficiently hard and fine-grained, making them durable and capable of showing fine detail. Most of the joint works of Fawcett and Lydon were published by Groombridge, if there was a secret which produced the fine results it would have been. Benjamin Fawcett engraving every one of the three hundred and sixty plates for this work on wood with his own hand, making the inks himself from the costliest powders and the most expensive varnishes procurable. and each specimen plate for the colourers painted by his wife. This, I believe, is an achievement without parallel in book production, the very best materials were used. Benjamin Fawcett died in January 1893, a few weeks before Francis Orpen Morris, a Natural History of British Birds. The Rev. Francis Orpen Morris 6 vols, Benjamin Fawcett, A F Lydon, Publisher William Mackenzie, London. First Edition xxvi, 202pp, Illustrated with 41 full page colour plates as well as vignette head pieces,41 tissue-guarded colour-printed xylograph plates by Benjamin Fawcett of Driffield after A. F. Lydon, and another 64 woodcuts by Lydon. County Seats of The Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, paragon Review Memoir written by Francis Orpen Morris son, the Rev. M. C. F
