London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
John Lindsay, 20th Earl of Crawford
Lieutenant-General John Lindsay, 20th Earl of Crawford was a Scottish peer and the first colonel of the Black Watch on its formation in 1739. Lindsay was the son of Lieutenant-General John Lindsay, 19th Earl of Crawford and Emilia Stuart and inherited his titles on the death of his father in 1714, he was educated at the Vaudeuil Military Academy, Paris. The Earl of Crawford was commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards in 1726, but served in the Austrian and Russian armies before returning to Britain and taking command of the Black Watch, he was Colonel of the 2nd Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards and Colonel of the 4th Troop of Horse Guards, fighting at the Battle of Dettingen on 16 June 1743. He gained the rank of Brigadier-General in 1744 and Major-General in 1745, he fought in the Jacobite rising of 1745 and the Battle of Fontenoy on 30 April 1745. Crawford was Colonel of the 25th Foot, he fought in the Battle of Rocoux on 11 October 1746 and gained the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1747. He was Colonel of the 2nd Dragoons.
In 1734 he was Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. Crawford had married Lady Jean Murray, daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl, in 1747 but she died only nine months after their marriage, he died on 26 December 1749 from a leg wound received at the Battle of Krotzka in 1739. He was the last member of the Lindsay family to be buried in the mausoleum in the cemetery at Ceres, Scotland. Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages thepeerage.com
John Colley Nixon
John Colley Nixon was an English merchant and amateur artist. The son of Robert Nixon, an Irish merchant in London, he was in business as a merchant in Basinghall Street and was for many years secretary to the Beefsteak Club. Nixon was known for landscapes, for caricatures, some of which he etched himself, he was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1815. He drew a number of views of the seats of the nobility and gentry in England and Ireland, which were engraved for a series published by William Watts. Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed.. "Nixon, John". Dictionary of National Biography. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co
British and Foreign Bible Society
The British and Foreign Bible Society known in England and Wales as the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The Society was formed on 7 March 1804 by a group of people including William Wilberforce and Thomas Charles to encourage the "wider circulation and use" of the Scriptures; the British and Foreign Bible Society dates back to 1804 when a group of Christians, associated with the Religious Tract Society, sought to address the problem of a lack of affordable Bibles in Welsh for Welsh-speaking Christians. Many young girls had walked long distances to Rev Thomas Charles to get copies of the Bible; the story was told of one of them - a young girl called Mary Jones who walked over 20 miles to get a Bible in Bala, Gwynedd. BFBS was not the first Bible Society in the world; the first organisation in Britain to be called "The Bible Society" was founded in 1779 and now called the Naval and Air Force Bible Society.
The first BFBS translation project was the Gospel of John into Mohawk for Canada. In the British Isles BFBS reprinted Bibles in Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Manx Gaelic first produced by SPCK; the first Romani translation was the Gospel of Luke into the Caló language of Iberia. From the early days, the Society sought to be non-sectarian; the Controversy in 1825-6 about the Apocrypha and the Metrical Psalms resulted in the secession of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Bible Societies, which formed what is now the Scottish Bible Society. This and another similar 1831 controversy about Unitarians holding significant Society offices resulted in a minority separating to form the Trinitarian Bible Society; the Bible Society extended its work to England, India and beyond. Protestant communities in many European countries date back to the work of nineteenth century BFBS Bible salesmen. Auxiliary branches were set up all over the world, which became Bible Societies in their own right, today operate in co-operation as part of the United Bible Societies.
The Bible Society is a non-denominational Christian network which works to translate, revise and distribute affordable Bibles in England and Wales. During World War One Bible Society distributed more than nine million copies of Scripture, in over 80 languages, to combatants and prisoners of war on all sides of the war. Bible Society managed this despite immense challenges – supply shortages, rising paper costs, paper rationing, submarine blockades and the sinking of merchant shipping. Greater than these physical difficulties was the emotional toll – former colleagues found themselves fighting on opposing sides. Bible salesmen throughout Europe volunteered into their respective armies; the Bible Society responded to the challenge. They printed New Testaments bound in khaki, stamped with a cross, for distribution via the Red Cross among sick and wounded soldiers and prisoners of war. On average between 6–7,000 volumes were sent out every working day for fighting men, the sick and wounded, the prisoners of war and refugees.
That's over four copies distributed each minute and night, for the duration of the war. Translation work never stopped – between August 1914 and November 1918, Bible Society printed Scriptures in 34 new languages and dialects; this meant. For many years the headquarters of the society was in London. C.4. By 1972 it had distributed whole Bibles or parts of the Bible in 1,431 languages. At that time it was distributing 173 million copies each year; the Society is working to circulate the Scriptures across the world, in the church and through the culture. The strategy of Bible Society centres on Bible availability and credibility - what it calls the ‘lifecycle’ of the Bible; these strategic approaches encompass all of its activity: translation, distribution, literacy and advocacy. Translation: making the Bible available in languages without the Scriptures, revising existing Bibles to bring the language up-to-date, so that everyone can experience the Scriptures in their mother tongue. Translation is into spoken and signed languages Production: printing physical copies of the Bible and producing Scriptures in different formats such as print and digital forms in order to meet the demands of the millions around the world who want a Bible of their own Distribution: taking the Bible to places where it might otherwise be hard to come by, in formats that people can use Literacy: helping people to read and to read well, using the Bible as a resource Engagement: helping people grapple with the Bible and respond to it wisely Advocacy: giving the wider culture a reason and opportunity to encounter the joys of the BibleThe Bible Society has by far the largest collection of Bibles in the world, with about 39,000 items.
It includes its Chinese Collection, the largest collection of Chinese Scriptures anywhere in the world. Since the society's move to Swindon in 1985 the library has been located in the library of the University of Cambridge; the Society's mission is global. Its work is organised into two categories: international; the Society is part of an international fellowship of over 140 Bible Societies around the world, known as the United Bible Societies. Its entire international programme is delivered on the ground through the close relationship they have with each of their fellow Bible Societies. American Bible Society Protestant missionary societies in China during the 19th Century Christian apologetics Ernest Tipson George Borrow 1823 Peshitta editi
The Football Association
The Football Association is the governing body of association football in England, the Crown dependencies of Jersey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in its territory; the FA sanctions all competitive football matches within its remit at national level, indirectly at local level through the County Football Associations. It runs numerous competitions, the most famous of, the FA Cup, it is responsible for appointing the management of the men's, women's, youth national football teams. The FA is a member of both UEFA and FIFA and holds a permanent seat on the International Football Association Board, responsible for the Laws of the Game; as the first football association, it does not use the national name "English" in its title. The FA is based at London; the FA is a member of the British Olympic Association, meaning that the FA has control over the men's and women's Great Britain Olympic football team.
All of England's professional football teams are members of the Football Association. Although it does not run the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, it has veto power over the appointment of the League Chairman and Chief Executive and over any changes to league rules; the English Football League, made up of the three professional divisions below the Premier League, is self-governing, subject to the FA's sanctions. For centuries before the first meeting of the Football Association in The Freemasons' Tavern on Great Queen Street, London on 26 October 1863, there were no universally accepted rules for playing football. Six meetings near London's Covent Garden, at 81-82 Long Acre, ended in a split between the Football Association and what would have become the future rugby ten years later. Both of them had their own uniforms, rituals and formalised rules. In each public school the game was formalised according to local conditions. Another set of rules, the Sheffield Rules, was used by a number of clubs in the North of England from the 1850s.
Eleven London football clubs and schools representatives met on 26 October 1863 to agree on common rules. The founding clubs present at the first meeting were Barnes, Civil Service, Forest of Leytonstone, N. N. Club, the original Crystal Palace, Kensington School, Perceval House and Blackheath Proprietary School. F. declined the offer to join. Many of these clubs play rugby union. Civil Service FC, who now plays in the Southern Amateur League, is the only one of the original eleven football clubs still in existence and playing Association Football. Although Forest School has been a member since the fifth meeting in December 1863. Central to the creation of the Football Association and modern football was Ebenezer Cobb Morley, he was a founding member of the Football Association in 1863. In 1862, as captain of Barnes, he wrote to Bell's Life newspaper proposing a governing body for the sport that led to the first meeting at The Freemasons' Tavern that created the FA, he was the FA's first secretary and its second president and drafted the Laws of the Game called the "London Rules" at his home in Barnes, London.
As a player, he played in the first-ever match in 1863. The first version of the rules for the modern game was drawn up over a series of six meetings held in The Freemasons' Tavern from October till December. Of the clubs at the first meeting, Crusaders and Charterhouse did not attend the subsequent meetings, replaced instead by the Royal Navy School, Wimbledon School and Forest School. At the final meeting, F. M. Campbell, the first FA treasurer and the Blackheath representative, withdrew his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting, the first which allowed for the running with the ball in hand and the second, obstructing such a run by hacking and holding. Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA but instead in 1871 formed the Rugby Football Union; the term "soccer" dates back to this split to refer to football played under the "association" rules. After six clubs had withdrawn as they supported the opposing Rugby Rules, the Football Association had just nine members in January 1864: Barnes, Crystal Palace, War Office, Forest Club, Forest School, Sheffield and Royal Engineers.
An inaugural game using the new FA rules was scheduled for Battersea Park on 2 January 1864, but enthusiastic members of the FA could not wait for the new year and an experimental game was played at Mortlake on 19 December 1863 between Morley's Barnes team and their neighbours Richmond, ending in a goalless draw. The Richmond side were unimpressed by the new rules in practice because they subsequently helped form the Rugby Football Union in 1871; the Battersea Park game was the first exhibition game using FA rules, was played there on Saturday 2 January 1864. The members of the opposing teams for this game were chosen by the President of the FA and the Secretary and included many well-known footballers of the day. After the first match according to the new FA rules a toast was given "Success to football, irrespective of class or creed". Another notable match was London v Sheffield, in which a r
Newtonianism
Newtonianism is a philosophical and scientific doctrine inspired by the beliefs and methods of natural philosopher Isaac Newton. While Newton's influential contributions were in physics and mathematics, his broad conception of the universe as being governed by rational and understandable laws laid the foundation for many strands of Enlightenment thought. Newtonianism became an influential intellectual program that applied Newton's principles in many avenues of inquiry, laying the groundwork for modern science, in addition to influencing philosophy, political thought and theology. Newton's Principia Mathematica, published by the Royal Society in 1687 but not available and in English until after his death, is the text cited as revolutionary or otherwise radical in the development of science; the three books of Principia, considered a seminal text in mathematics and physics, are notable for their rejection of hypotheses in favor of inductive and deductive reasoning based on a set of definitions and axioms.
This method may be contrasted to the Cartesian method of deduction based on sequential logical reasoning, showed the efficacy of applying mathematical analysis as a means of making discoveries about the natural world. Newton's other seminal work was Opticks, printed in 1704 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, of which he became president in 1703; the treatise, which features his now famous work on the composition and dispersion of sunlight, is cited as an example of how to analyze difficult questions via quantitative experimentation. So, the work was not considered revolutionary in Newton's time. One hundred years however, Thomas Young would describe Newton's observations in Opticks as "yet unrivalled... they only rise in our estimation as we compare them with attempts to improve on them." The first edition of Principia features proposals about the movements of celestial bodies which Newton calls "hypotheses"—however, by the second edition, the word "hypothesis" was replaced by the word "rule", Newton had added to the footnotes the following statement:...
I frame no hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called a hypothesis. Newton's work and the philosophy that enshrines it are based on mathematical empiricism, the idea that mathematical and physical laws may be revealed in the real world via experimentation and observation, it is important to note, that Newton's empiricism is balanced against an adherence to an exact mathematical system, that in many cases the "observed phenomena" upon which Newton built his theories were based on mathematical models, which were representative but not identical to the natural phenomena they described. Newtonian doctrine can be contrasted with several alternative sets of principles and methods such as Cartesianism and Wolffianism. Despite his reputation for empiricism in historical and scientific circles, Newton was religious and believed in the literal truth of Scripture, taking the story of Genesis to be Moses' eyewitness account of the creation of the solar system. Newton reconciled his beliefs by adopting the idea that the Christian God set in place at the beginning of time the "mechanical" laws of nature, but retained the power to enter and alter that mechanism at any time.
Newton further believed that the preservation of nature was in itself an act of God, stating that "a continual miracle is needed to prevent the Sun and fixed stars from rushing together through Gravity". Between 1726 and 1729, French author and historian Voltaire was exiled in England, where he met several significant English scholars and devotees to the Newtonian system of thought. Voltaire would bring these ideas back to France with his publication of Lettres Philosophiques and Philosophie de Newton, which popularized Newton's intellectual practices and general philosophy. Prominent natural philosopher and friend of Voltaire, Émilie du Châtelet, would publish a French translation of Principia, which met with great success in France. While Newton was opposed by some members of the religious community for his non-Trinitarian beliefs about God, others believed science itself to be a philosophical exercise, that if done would lead its practitioners to a greater knowledge and appreciation of God.
In 1737, Italian scholar Count Frencesco Algarotti published a book entitled Newtonianismo per le dame overro dialoghi sopre la luce e i colori, which aimed to introduce female audiences to the work of Newton. The text explained the principles of Newton's Opticks while avoiding much of the mathematical rigor of the work in favor of a more "agreeable" text; the book was published with a title that made no reference to women, leading some to believe that the female branding of the book was a ploy to avoid censorship. Scottish philosopher David Hume inspired by the methods of analysis and synthesis which Newton developed in Opticks, was a strong adherent of Newtonian empiricism in his studies of moral phenomena. Newton and his philosophy of Newtonianism arguably led to the popularization of science in Europe—particularly in England and Germany—catalyzing the Age of Enlightenment
United Grand Lodge of England
The United Grand Lodge of England is the governing body for the majority of freemasons within England and Wales along with lodges in other, predominantly ex-British Empire and Commonwealth, countries outside the United Kingdom. It claims to be the oldest Grand Lodge in the world, by descent from the first Grand Lodge formed by four Lodges meeting in the Goose & Gridiron Tavern, London on St John's Day, 24 June 1717. Together with the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Grand Lodge of Ireland they are referred to, by their members, as "the home Grand Lodges" or "the Home Constitutions". Prior to 1717 there were Freemasons' lodges in England and Ireland, with the earliest known admission of non-operative masons being in Scotland. On St John's Day, 24 June 1717, three existing London lodges and a Westminster lodge held a joint dinner at the Goose and Gridiron alehouse in St. Paul's Churchyard, elected Anthony Sayer to the chair as Grand Master, called themselves the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster.
The City of London Corporation has erected a Blue Plaque near the location. Little is known of Sayer save that he was described as a Gentleman when he became Grand Master, but fell on hard times, receiving money from the Grand Lodge charity fund. In 1718 Sayer was succeeded by a successful Civil Servant; the society passed into the care of John Theophilus Desaguliers, a scientist and clergyman back to Payne. In 1721, the Grand Lodge managed to obtain a nobleman, the Duke of Montagu to preside as Grand Master, so was able to establish itself as an authoritative regulatory body, began meeting on a quarterly basis; this resulted in lodges outside London becoming affiliated, accepting sequentially numbered warrants conferring seniority over applicants. In 1723, by authority of the Grand Lodge, James Anderson published the Constitutions of Masonry for the purposes of regulating the craft and establishing the Grand Lodge's authority to warrant Lodges to meet; the book includes a fanciful history of the Craft, which contains much interesting material.
Throughout the early years of the new Grand Lodge there were any number of Masons and lodges that never affiliated with the new Grand Lodge. These unaffiliated Masons and their Lodges were referred to as "Old Masons", or "St. John Masons", "St. John Lodges". During the 1730s and 1740s antipathy increased between the London Grand Lodge and the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland. Irish and Scots Masons visiting and living in London considered the London Grand Lodge to have deviated from the ancient practices of the Craft; as a result, these Masons felt a stronger kinship with the unaffiliated London Lodges. The aristocratic nature of the London Grand Lodge and its members alienated other Masons causing them to identify with the unaffiliated Lodges. On 17 July 1751, representatives of five Lodges gathered at the Turk's Head Tavern, in Greek Street, Soho and formed a rival Grand Lodge – "The Grand Lodge of England According to the Old Institutions", they considered that they practiced a more ancient and therefore purer form of Masonry, called their Grand Lodge The Ancients' Grand Lodge.
They called those affiliated to the Premier Grand Lodge, by the pejorative epithet The Moderns. These two unofficial names stuck; the creation of Lodges followed the development of the Empire, with all three home Grand Lodges warranting Lodges around the world, including the Americas and Africa, from the 1730s. In 1809 the Moderns appointed a "Lodge of Promulgation" to return their own ritual to regularity with Scotland and the Ancients. In 1811 both Grand Lodges appointed Commissioners and over the next two years, articles of Union were negotiated and agreed. In January 1813 the Duke of Sussex became Grand Master of the Moderns on the resignation of his brother, the Prince Regent, in December of that year another brother, Duke of Kent became Grand Master of the Antients. On 27 December 1813 the United Grand Lodge of England was constituted at Freemasons' Hall, London with HRH the Duke of Sussex as Grand Master. A Lodge of Reconciliation was formed to reconcile the rituals worked under the two former Grand Lodges.
The new Grand Master had high hopes for Freemasonry, having a theory that it was pre-Christian and could serve the cause of humanity as a universal religion. However, his autocratic dealings with ordinary lodges won him few friends outside London, sparked open rebellion and a new Grand Lodge of Wigan in the North West. Within Grand Lodge, opposition centred on Masonic Charity. Robert Crucefix launched the Freemason's Quarterly Review to promote charity to keep Freemasons from the workhouse, to engage masons in the broader argument for social reform; the Earl of Zetland's complacent and inept management of Grand Lodge played into the hands of the reformers, by the end of the 1870s English Freemasonry had become a perfect expression of the aspirations of the enlightened middle classes. In response to conspiracy theories about Freemasons and hostile views gaining new life, due to the works of Stephen Knight and Martin Short, the United Grand Lodge of England began to change the way it dealt with the general public and the media from the mid-1990s, emphasizing a new "openness."
This presentation was summed up by Provincial Secretary of East Lancashire, Alan Garnett who declared, "we're not a secret society or a society with secrets, but we are a private society." Lodges across England and Wales began holding open days, to allow the general public to see what they do. Freemasons' Hall and the Library and Museum of Freemasonry opened to the general public, including guided tours. Today, the United Grand Lodge of England o
