1.
Theodore Blake Wirgman
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A number of these portraits are held at the National Portrait Gallery. Theodore Blake Wirgman was born in Belgium and died in London and he and his brothers, Charles Wirgman and Francis Wirgman, were the sons of Ferdinand Charles Wirgman and Frances Letitia Brereton. The Wirgman ancestral family had been successful silversmiths who had come to London from Sweden early in the 18th century, thomas Wirgman, Theodore Blakes grandfather, wrote books on Kant, the German philosopher. Several of Theodore Blakes siblings died in infancy and his sister Clara married into the French family Thevenard. He worked from a studio at 24 Dawson Place, Notting Hill, London, Wirgman was part of a group of avant-garde young artists who emulated Edward Burne-Jones and Simeon Solomon. This group was made up of Walter Crane, Robert Bateman, Harry Ellis Wooldridge, DAAO Charles Wirgman at www. daao. org. au Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs,8 vols, Paris, 1956-61. Media related to Theodore Blake Wirgman at Wikimedia Commons Portrait of Marjory,13 Painting by or after Theodore Blake Wirgman at the Art UK site
2.
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
3.
Glasgow Botanic Gardens
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Glasgow Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace, the gardens were created in 1817, and run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow, and were intended to supply the University of Glasgow. William Hooker was regius professor of botany at Glasgow University, the gardens were originally used for concerts and other events, and in 1891 the gardens were incorporated into the Parks and Gardens of the City of Glasgow. The site was served by a railway line, and Botanic Gardens Railway Station remains today in a derelict state as a remarkable example of a disused station. It is hidden behind trees and a metal fence blocks access to the platforms. Kirklee railway station lies just inside the gardens. Kibble Palace is a 19th-century wrought iron framed glasshouse, covering 2137 m2, originally designed by John Kibble for his home at Coulport on Loch Long in the 1860s, the components were cast by Walter Macfarlane at his Saracen Foundry in Possilpark. Eventually brought up the River Clyde by barge to the Botanic Gardens, the building structure is of curved wrought iron and glass supported by cast iron beams resting on ornate columns, surmounted on masonry foundations. It was initially used as an exhibition and concert venue, before being used for growing plants from the 1880s. The main plant group is the collection of New Zealand and Australian tree ferns, some of which have lived here for 120 years, in the 1920s a statue was added in the palace to King Robert of Sicily a figure from the works of Longfellow. This is by the Scottish sculptor George Henry Paulin, in 2004 a £7 million restoration programme was initiated to repair corrosion of the ironwork. The restoration involved the dismantling of the Palace, and the removal of the parts to Shafton, South Yorkshire for specialised repair. The plant collection was removed completely for the first time ever and it re-opened to the public in November 2006. Grid reference NS568675, Information from Glasgow City Council Kibble Palace, Information from Glasgow City Council Photographs of the Kibbles Restoration
4.
Sculpture
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Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies. The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
5.
Royal Academy of Arts
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The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner
6.
New Sculpture
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The New Sculpture was a movement in late 19th-century British sculpture. The term New Sculpture was coined by the first historian of the movement, the critic Edmund Gosse, after a protracted period of a stylized neoclassicism, sculpture in the last quarter of the century began to explore a greater degree of naturalism and wider range of subject matter. The French sculptor Jules Dalou, in his eight-year English exile after the Paris Commune events in 1871, taught modelling at the South Kensington School of Art and he profoundly influenced a new generation of British sculptors, helping to usher in a new approach to the medium. The catalyst for development is usually understood to be the exhibition, in 1877. This was Leightons first major sculpture, and he intended it as a challenge to the styles of sculpture. It reflected his interest in a dynamic and vibrant representation of the human body. Many sculptors looked to the Athlete and created responses to it in the following years, the New Sculpture represents an alternate formulation of a new direction for sculpture at the end of the nineteenth century. The New Sculpture does not represent one singular style, but rather a range of options developed to make sculpture more vital, a small exhibition dedicated to the New Sculpture was held at Tate Britain during the summer and early autumn of 2010. W. New Haven, Yale University Press,1983, body Doubles, Sculpture in Britain, 1877–1905. New Haven and London, Yale University Press,2004, getsy, David, ed. Sculpture and the Pursuit of a Modern Ideal in Britain, c. 1880–1930. New Haven, Yale University Press,1982
7.
Modernism
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Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by reactions of horror to World War I. Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and many modernists rejected religious belief, the poet Ezra Pounds 1934 injunction to Make it new. Was the touchstone of the approach towards what it saw as the now obsolete culture of the past. In this spirit, its innovations, like the novel, atonal and twelve-tone music, divisionist painting and abstract art. Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of realism and makes use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision, others focus on modernism as an aesthetic introspection. While J. M. W. Art critic Clement Greenberg describes the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as proto-Modernists, There the proto-Modernists were, of all people, the Pre-Raphaelites actually foreshadowed Manet, with whom Modernist painting most definitely begins. They acted on a dissatisfaction with painting as practiced in their time, rationalism has also had opponents in the philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and later Friedrich Nietzsche, both of whom had significant influence on existentialism. A major 19th-century engineering achievement was The Crystal Palace, the huge cast-iron, Glass and iron were used in a similar monumental style in the construction of major railway terminals in London, such as Paddington Station and Kings Cross Station. These technological advances led to the building of structures like the Brooklyn Bridge. The latter broke all previous limitations on how tall man-made objects could be and these engineering marvels radically altered the 19th-century urban environment and the daily lives of people. Arguments arose that the values of the artist and those of society were not merely different, but that Society was antithetical to Progress, the philosopher Schopenhauer called into question the previous optimism, and his ideas had an important influence on later thinkers, including Nietzsche. Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection undermined religious certainty and the idea of human uniqueness, in particular, the notion that human beings were driven by the same impulses as lower animals proved to be difficult to reconcile with the idea of an ennobling spirituality. Karl Marx argued that there were fundamental contradictions within the capitalist system, historians, and writers in different disciplines, have suggested various dates as starting points for modernism. Everdell also thinks modernism in painting began in 1885–86 with Seurats Divisionism, the poet Baudelaires Les Fleurs du mal, and Flauberts novel Madame Bovary were both published in 1857. In the arts and letters, two important approaches developed separately in France, the first was Impressionism, a school of painting that initially focused on work done, not in studios, but outdoors. Impressionist paintings demonstrated that human beings do not see objects, the school gathered adherents despite internal divisions among its leading practitioners, and became increasingly influential. A significant event of 1863 was the Salon des Refusés, created by Emperor Napoleon III to display all of the paintings rejected by the Paris Salon. While most were in standard styles, but by artists, the work of Manet attracted tremendous attention
8.
Thomas Thornycroft
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Thomas Thornycroft was an English sculptor and engineer. Thornycroft was born at Great Tidnock, near Gawsworth, Cheshire, the eldest son of John Thornycroft and he was educated at Congleton Grammar School and then briefly apprenticed to a surgeon. He moved to London where he spent four years as an assistant to the sculptor John Francis, in 1840 he married Francis daughter, Mary, who was also a sculptor. In 1843 he exhibited Medea about to Slay her Children at the held at Westminster Hall. It led to a commission to make two bronze statues of barons who signed the Magna Carta for the House of Lords, for the Great Exhibition of 1851 Thornycroft made an over-life-sized plaster equestrian statue of Queen Victoria which was much admired by the queen herself and by Prince Albert. He had the familys full co-operation in its creation, the queens horse being sent round to his studio several times during the process. He made several memorials to Prince Albert following his death in 1861, the first to be completed was an equestrian sculpture at Halifax, unveiled in September 1864. He went on to similar works for Wolverhampton and Liverpool. The one at Liverpool, commissioned in 1862 but not completed five years later, was soon paired with an equestrian portrait of Queen Victoria. In 1867 Thornycroft was commissioned to make the group entitled Commerce for the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens in London. George Gilbert Scott, the designer of the thought the concept was too complicated. Thornycroft also worked on a representation of Boadicea and Her Daughters, exhibiting a Colossal head of Boadicea. A short biography published that said he had already been working on it for many years at intervals. The sculpture was not, however, cast in bronze until 1902,17 years after his death, when it was installed on plinth on the Victoria Embankment, by Westminster Bridge, London. The figures are shown in a chariot with scythed wheels, drawn by two horses and he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1839 and 1874. In later life Thomas worked with his older son John Isaac Thornycroft on designs for steam launches, having, in 1864, in 1875, together with Mary and another son, Hamo Thornycroft, he designed the Poets Fountain, near Hyde Park Corner, London. Other works by Thornycroft are in the Old Bailey and in Westminster Abbey, through his daughter, Teresa, he was the grandfather of the poet Siegfried Sassoon. Thomas died in Brenchley, Kent, and was buried in Chiswick Old Church and his other works include, Statue of George Benjamin Thorneycroft, first Mayor of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton
9.
John Isaac Thornycroft
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Sir John Isaac Thornycroft was a British shipbuilder, the founder of the Thornycroft shipbuilding company and member of the Thornycroft family. He was born in 1843 to Mary Francis and Thomas Thornycroft, the Nautilus was a fast boat with a reliable engine, and in 1862 it proved to be the first steam launch with enough speed to follow the contenders in the University race. In 1866 Thornycroft took over Chestermans yard completely, and John I, Thornycroft & Company was formally established, but at the beginning, John Thornycroft did not work there full time. Instead he worked for a while at Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company in Jarrow-on-Tyne before studying for a diploma in engineering at the University of Glasgow, at Glasgow he studied under Lord Kelvin and Professor Macquorn Rankine. On his return from Scotland he built the fast steam yacht Miranda in 1871, and thereby proved that small vessels could obtain speeds that were not thought possible at the time. The exploits of the Miranda gave rise to further orders of similar vessels, including the Gitana, built in 1876 and capable of 20.8 knots, besides the yacht sales, Thornycroft found an even more lucrative business building torpedo boats. It started with the Rap for Norway in 1873, a light vessels built of steel plates. The early torpedo boats were designed for spar torpedoes, but when a new generation of self propelled torpedoes arrived from Whitehead in 1876, Thornycroft designed the HMS Lightning for the Royal Navy, on the lines of the Gitana, and orders started mounting. John Thornycroft was not the only supplier of torpedo boats, but his influence was so big that the Encyclopedia of Ships, the weight of the boiler system precluded speeds over 22–23 knots, and Thornycroft set out to work on an improved system. Water-tube boilers already existed, and Thornycroft built the river-steamer Peace in 1882 with that type of boilers, in 1885 his improved system was ready, and it became one of the most important of the 50-60 patents he obtained between 1873 and 1924. Like other engineers before and after him, Thornycroft tried to solve the problem of how to reduce rolling in ships and he bought the yacht Cecile of 300 tons and installed a device consisting of a 6 ton moveable watertank, controlled by hydraulic cylinders. John Thornycoft presented his results to the Institution of Naval Architects in 1892, in 1894, Thornycroft and his employee Sydney W. Barnaby were some of the first to record the effects of cavitation during the tests of the destroyer Daring. The tests revealed that the narrow blade screws of the day ceased to be effective at high speeds, the old screws would do 24 knots at 3,700 I. H. P, while the new ones delivered 28.4 knots with the same power. John Thornycroft entered a new field of business in 1896, when he built a steam-powered lorry for his local Chiswick Urban District, more followed, and in 1901 he made a breakthrough by winning the War Offices competition for heavy lorries for military use. In 1898 the company opened a new factory for lorries in Basingstoke, later, the company also began building combustion-engine vehicles, and production continued at Basingstoke until 1969. In his quest for still faster vessels, John Thornycroft made several tests with different hull-shapes and this hull shape would almost lift the boat out of the water, facilitating high speeds. Thornycroft & Company designed and built a 25 ft boat called Miranda IV and she was a single-step hydroplane powered by a 120 hp Thornycroft petrol engine and could reach 35 knots. The Hovercraft Museum holds a number of models that John Thornycroft used for his experiments
10.
Siegfried Sassoon
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Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC was an English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the Sherston trilogy. Siegfried Sassoon was born and grew up in the neo-gothic mansion named Weirleigh, in Matfield, Kent, to a Jewish father and his father, Alfred Ezra Sassoon, son of Sassoon David Sassoon, was a member of the wealthy Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon merchant family. For marrying outside the faith, Alfred was disinherited, Siegfrieds mother, Theresa, belonged to the Thornycroft family, sculptors responsible for many of the best-known statues in London—her brother was Sir Hamo Thornycroft. There was no German ancestry in Siegfrieds family, his mother named him Siegfried because of her love of Wagners operas and his middle name, Loraine, was the surname of a clergyman with whom she was friendly. Siegfried was the second of three sons, the others being Michael and Hamo, when he was four years old his parents separated. During his fathers visits to the boys, Theresa locked herself in the drawing-room. In 1895 Alfred Sassoon died of tuberculosis, Sassoon was educated at the New Beacon School, Sevenoaks, Kent, at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and at Clare College, Cambridge, where from 1905 to 1907 he read history. He went down from Cambridge without a degree and spent the few years hunting, playing cricket and writing verse. Robert Graves, in Good-Bye to All That describes it as a parody of Masefield which, midway through, had forgotten to be a parody, Sassoon wanted to play for Kent County Cricket Club, Kent Captain Frank Marchant was a neighbour of Sassoon. Siegfried often turned out for Bluehouses at the Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells and he had also played cricket for his house at Marlborough College, once taking 7 wickets for 18 runs. Although an enthusiast, Sassoon was not good enough to play for Kent, but he played cricket for Matfield village and he broke his arm badly in a riding accident and was put out of action before even leaving England, spending the spring of 1915 convalescing. He was commissioned into the 3rd Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, on 1 November his younger brother Hamo was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign, and in the same month Siegfried was sent to the 1st Battalion in France. There he met Robert Graves, and they became close friends, united by their poetic vocation, they often read and discussed each others work. Though this did not have much influence on Gravess poetry. Sassoons periods of duty on the Western Front were marked by exceptionally brave actions, armed with grenades, he scattered sixty German soldiers, He went over with bombs in daylight, under covering fire from a couple of rifles, and scared away the occupants. A pointless feat, since instead of signalling for reinforcements, he sat down in the German trench, when he went back he did not even report
11.
Classical sculpture
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More precisely it refers to Ancient Greek sculpture from around 500 BC to the onset of the Hellenistic style around 323 BC. It may also refer stylistically to later sculpture done in a Neoclassical or classical style, Classical sculptures have been popular since the Renaissance. Only those works that follow the canon of classical forms would fall under the term. In addition to standing statues, the term classical sculpture incorporates relief work. Whereas sculptural works emphasized the human form, reliefs were employed to create elaborate decorative scenes, Ancient statues and bas-reliefs survive showing the bare surface of the material of which they are made, and people generally associate classical art with white marble sculpture. But there is evidence that statues were painted in bright colours. Most of the colour was weathered off over time, small remnants were removed during cleaning, there are several periods, The most important sculptural form of the Archaic period was the kouros, the standing male nude. Reflecting Egyptian influence, the kouros stands upright with his left leg slightly forward, Archaic Greek sculptors seem to have been influenced stylistically by the Egyptians, although divergences appeared early on. In particular, the figures of Archaic Greece tended to be represented in the nude. As in Egyptian art, female subjects were always portrayed clothed, in this period, the later emphasis on naturalistic bone and muscle anatomy had not yet developed, which can be seen in observing details such as the knees and other critical joints. Some details seem to be incised rather than fully modeled, a relic of ancient traditions. Nor did figures stand or move naturally, however, as the Archaic style gradually transformed into what is known as the Classical style, a clear progression displaying more and more technical knowledge and skill can be detected. The Classical period saw changes in both the style and function of sculpture, poses became more naturalistic, and the technical skill of Greek sculptors in depicting the human form in a variety of poses greatly increased. From about 500 BC statues began to depict real people, the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton set up in Athens to mark the overthrow of the tyranny were said to be the first public monuments to actual people. As Greek artists began to study movement and anatomy, they discovered that living humans tend to display a weight shift or contraposition when standing. The first Greek statue to exhibit contrapposto is the famed Kritios Boy, Greek temples were specially made to fit the large cult statues. They believed that placing shrines around the areas that were said to be holy would please the gods, because Greek gods were mostly myths based on real peoples lives mixed feelings were created about the sculptures, and therefore more man-like sculptures were created. Most sculptures created can be understood to represent myth, archetype or purpose in life, during the classical period sculptors were not only creating works for temples, but also mortuary statues to show tribute to deceased loved ones
12.
Frederic Leighton
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Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA, known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter, Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage in history, after only one day his hereditary peerage ended with his death. Leighton was born in Scarborough to a family in the import and export business and he was educated at University College School, London. He then received his training on the European continent, first from Eduard von Steinle. When he was 24 he was in Florence, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, from 1855 to 1859 he lived in Paris, where he met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Millet. In 1860, he moved to London, where he associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and he designed Elizabeth Barrett Brownings tomb for Robert Browning in the English Cemetery, Florence in 1861. In 1864 he became an associate of the Royal Academy and in 1878 he became its President and his 1877 sculpture, Athlete Wrestling with a Python, was considered at its time to inaugurate a renaissance in contemporary British sculpture, referred to as the New Sculpture. American art critic Earl Shinn claimed at the time that Except Leighton and his paintings represented Britain at the great 1900 Paris Exhibition. Leighton was knighted at Windsor in 1878, and was created a baronet, of Holland Park Road in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, eight years later. He was the first painter to be given a peerage, in the New Year Honours List of 1896, the patent creating him Baron Leighton, of Stretton in the County of Shropshire, was issued on 24 January 1896, Leighton died the next day of angina pectoris. Leighton remained a bachelor and rumours of his having a child with one of his models in addition to the supposition that Leighton may have been homosexual continue to be debated today. He certainly enjoyed an intense and romantically tinged relationship with the poet Henry William Greville whom he met in Florence in 1856, the older man showered Leighton in letters, but the romantic affection seems not to have been reciprocated. Enquiry is furthermore hindered by the fact that Leighton left no diaries, after his death his Barony was extinguished after existing for only a day, this is a record in the Peerage. His house in Holland Park, London has been turned into a museum, the house also features many of Leightons inspirations, including his collection of Iznik tiles. Its centrepiece is the magnificent Arab Hall, the Hall is featured in issue ten of Cornucopia. A blue plaque commemorates Leighton at Leighton House Museum, Leighton was an enthusiastic volunteer soldier, enrolling with the first group to join the 38th Middlesex Rifle volunteers on 5 October 1860. His qualities of leadership were identified, and he was promoted to command A Company within a few months. On 6 January 1869 Captain Leighton was elected to command The Artists Rifles by a meeting of the corps
13.
Edmund Gosse
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Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren and his account of his childhood in the book Father and Son has been described as the first psychological biography. His friendship with the sculptor Hamo Thornycroft inspired a career as a historian of late-Victorian sculpture. His translations of Ibsen helped to promote that playwright in England and he also lectured in English literature at Cambridge. Gosse was the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes and his father was a naturalist and his mother an illustrator who published a number of books of poetry. Both were deeply committed to a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren and his childhood was initially happy as they spent their summers in Devon where his father was developing the ideas which gave rise to the craze for the marine aquarium. Gosse was sent to a school where he began to develop his own interests in literature. His father married in 1860 the deeply religious Quaker spinster Eliza Brightwen and he later gave an account of his childhood in the book Father and Son which has been described as the first psychological biography. At the age of 18 and working in the British Museum in London, Eliza Gosses brother George was the husband of Eliza Elder Brightwen, a naturalist and author, whose first book was published in 1890. H. Chesson, and the book with an introduction. Gosse started his career as assistant librarian at the British Museum from 1867 alongside the songwriter Theo Marzials, an early book of poetry published with a friend John Arthur Blaikie gave him an introduction to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was soon reviewing Scandinavian literature in a variety of publications and he became acquainted with Alfred, Lord Tennyson and friends with Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy and Henry James. In the meantime, he published his first solo volume of poetry, On Viol and Flute, Gosse and Robert Louis Stevenson first met while teenagers, and after 1879, when Stevenson came to London on occasion, he would stay with Gosse and his family. In 1875 Gosse became a translator at the Board of Trade, from 1884 to 1890, Gosse lectured in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, despite his own lack of academic qualifications. Cambridge University gave him an honorary MA in 1886, and Trinity College formally admitted him as a member, by order of the Council, in 1889. He made a successful American lecture tour in 1884 and was much in demand as a speaker and on committees as well as publishing a string of works as well as poetry. He became, in the 1880s, one of the most important art dealing with sculpture with an interest spurred on by his intimate friendship with the sculptor Hamo Thornycroft. Gosse would eventually write the first history of the renaissance of late-Victorian sculpture in 1894 in a series for The Art Journal
14.
Lot's wife
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In the Bible, Lots wife is a figure first mentioned in Genesis 19. The Book of Genesis describes how she became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom and she is called Ado or Edith in some Jewish traditions, but is not named in the Bible. She is also referred to in the books at Wisdom 10,7. Islamic accounts also talk about the wife of Prophet Lut when mentioning People of Lut, the narrative of Lots wife begins in Genesis 19 after two angels arrived in Sodom, at eventide, and were invited to spend the night at Lots home. As dawn was breaking, Lots visiting angels urged him to get his family and flee, Lot delayed, so the angels took hold of his hand, his wifes hand and his daughters and brought them out of the city. The command was given, Flee for your life, do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the Plain, flee to the hills, lest you be swept away. Lot objected to the idea of fleeing to the hills and requested safe haven at a town nearby. The request was granted and the became known as Zoar. Traveling behind her husband, Lots wife looked back, and became a pillar of salt, the Hebrew verb used for Lots wife looking back is תבט, tāḇeṭ. Her looking back at Sodom differs in word usage to Abraham looking שקף, the story appears to be based in part on a folk legend explaining a geographic feature. A pillar of salt named Lots wife is located near the Dead Sea at Mount Sodom in Israel, the Mishnah states that a blessing should be said at the place where the pillar of salt is. Other pillars are said to be at the crossing of the Red Sea as well as at the Wall of Jericho, the Jewish historian Josephus claimed to have seen the pillar of salt which was Lots wife. Its existence is attested to by the early church fathers Clement of Rome. In Judaism, one view of Lots wife turning to salt was as punishment for disobeying the angels warning. By looking back at the cities she betrayed her secret longing for that way of life. She was deemed unworthy to be saved and thus turned to a pillar of salt, one reason that is given in the tradition is that she turned back to look in order to see if her daughters, who were married to men of Sodom, were coming or not. Another Jewish legend says that because Lots wife sinned with salt, on the night the two angels visited Lot, he requested that his wife prepare a feast for them. Not having any salt, Lots wife asked her neighbors for salt, in the Midrash, Lots wifes name is given as Edith
15.
Artemis
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Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek, Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron, Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter, in the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her, in later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth. The name Artemis is of unknown or uncertain origin and etymology although various ones have been proposed, for example, according to J. T. Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon. Anton Goebel suggests the root στρατ or ῥατ, to shake, babiniotis, while accepting that the etymology is unknown, states that the name is already attested in Mycenean Greek and is possibly of pre-Hellenic origin. It is believed that a precursor of Artemis was worshiped in Minoan Crete as the goddess of mountains and hunting, R. S. P. Beekes suggested that the e/i interchange points to a Pre-Greek origin. Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus, various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, an account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto, but the island of Delos disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there. In ancient Cretan history Leto was worshipped at Phaistos and in Cretan mythology Leto gave birth to Apollo, a scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mothers mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo. The childhood of Artemis is not fully related in any surviving myth, the Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to that of a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. She wished for no city dedicated to her, but to rule the mountains, Artemis believed that she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly since she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis closely guarded her own chastity and her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon. Okeanus daughters were filled with fear, but the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for bow, Callimachus then tells how Artemis visited Pan, the god of the forest, who gave her seven bitches and six dogs. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot, Artemis practiced with her bow first by shooting at trees and then at wild beasts. As a virgin, Artemis had interested many gods and men, Orion was accidentally killed either by Artemis or by Gaia
16.
Teucer
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This article is about Teucer, son of King Telamon of Salamis in Greek mythology. For Teucer, son of Scamander and Idaea in Greek mythology, in Greek mythology, Teucer, also Teucrus, Teucros or Teucris, was the son of King Telamon of Salamis Island and Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. He fought alongside his half-brother, Ajax, in the Trojan War and is the founder of the city of Salamis on Cyprus. Through his mother, Teucer was the nephew of King Priam of Troy, during the Trojan War, Teucer was mainly a great archer, who loosed his shafts from behind the giant shield of his half-brother Ajax the Great. When Hector was driving the Achaeans back toward their ships, Teucer gave the Argives some success by killing many of the charging Trojans, including Hectors charioteer, Archeptolemus son of Iphitos. However, every time he shot an arrow at Hector, Apollo, at one point in his rage at Teucers success, Hector picked up a huge rock and flung it at him. The rock injured Teucer, so that he retired from the fighting for a period of time. He took up a spear to fight in the war after his bow was broken by Zeus and he once again challenged Hector, and narrowly avoided the path of Hectors flying javelin in the ensuing battle. He was also one of the Danaans to enter the Trojan Horse and he also wounded Glaucus, son of Hippolochus. After Ajaxs suicide, Teucer guarded the body to make sure it was buried, insulting Menelaus, finally Odysseus persuaded Agamemnon to let the burial happen. Because of his half-brothers suicide, Teucer stood trial before his father and he was disowned by his father, wasnt allowed back on Salamis Island, and set out to find a new home. This speech has been given a wider applicability in relation to the theme of voyages of discovery, Teucer eventually joined King Belus II in his campaign against Cyprus, and when the island was seized, Belus handed it over to him in reward for his assistance. Teucer founded the city of Salamis on Cyprus, which he named after his home state and he further married Eune, daughter of Cyprus or Cinyras, and had by her a daughter Asteria. The name Teucer is believed to be related to the name of the West Hittite God Tarku —the Indo-European Storm God—a role which explains his relationship to Belus, the city is sometimes poetically called The City of Teucer and its inhabitants teucrinos. A number of sporting clubs in the municipality use names related to Teucer
17.
Thomas Hardy
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Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the status of rural people in Britain. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the dUrbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. During his lifetime, Hardys poetry was acclaimed by poets who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden, Two of his novels, Tess of the dUrbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd, were listed in the top 50 on the BBCs survey The Big Read. Jemima was well-read, and she educated Thomas until he went to his first school at Bockhampton at the age of eight, for several years he attended Mr. Lasts Academy for Young Gentlemen in Dorchester, where he learned Latin and demonstrated academic potential. Because Hardys family lacked the means for a university education, his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, when he apprenticed to James Hicks. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862 and he won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association. He joined Arthur Blomfields practice as assistant architect in April 1862 and worked with Blomfield on All Saints parish church in Windsor, a reredos, possibly designed by Hardy, was discovered behind panelling at All Saints in August 2016. Hardy never felt at home in London, because he was conscious of class divisions. During this time he became interested in reform and the works of John Stuart Mill. He was also introduced by his Dorset friend Horace Moule to the works of Charles Fourier, after five years, concerned about his health, he returned to Dorset, settling in Weymouth, and decided to dedicate himself to writing. In 1870, while on a mission to restore the parish church of St Juliot in Cornwall, Hardy met and fell in love with Emma Gifford. In 1885 Thomas and his wife moved into Max Gate, a designed by Hardy. In 1914, Hardy married his secretary Florence Emily Dugdale, who was 39 years his junior, however, he remained preoccupied with his first wifes death and tried to overcome his remorse by writing poetry. In 1910, Hardy had been awarded the Order of Merit and was also for the first time nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and he would be nominated for the prize eleven years later. His funeral was on 16 January at Westminster Abbey, and it proved a controversial occasion because Hardy had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the grave as his first wife
18.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
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Tess of the dUrbervilles, A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891, the novel is set in impoverished rural England, Thomas Hardys fictional Wessex, during the Long Depression of the 1870s. Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated peasants, however, John is given the impression by Parson Tringham that he may have noble blood, as Durbeyfield is a corruption of DUrberville, the surname of an extinct noble Norman family. Knowledge of this goes to Johns head. That same day, Tess participates in the village May Dance, where she meets Angel Clare, youngest son of Reverend James Clare and he stops to join the dance and partners several other girls. Angel notices Tess too late to dance with her, as he is late for a promised meeting with his brothers. Tesss father gets too drunk to drive to the market that night, however, she falls asleep at the reins, and the familys only horse encounters a speeding wagon and is fatally wounded. She is unaware that, in reality, Mrs dUrbervilles husband Simon Stoke adopted the surname even though he was unrelated to the real dUrbervilles. Tess does not succeed in meeting Mrs dUrberville, but chances to meet her son, Alec. Although Tess tells them about her fear that he try to seduce her, her parents encourage her to accept the job. Tess dislikes Alec but endures his persistent unwanted attention to earn enough to replace her familys horse, late one night, walking home from town with some other Trantridge villagers, Tess inadvertently antagonizes Car Darch, Alecs most recently discarded favourite, and finds herself in physical danger. When Alec rides up and offers to rescue her from the situation, Alec returns to find Tess asleep, and it is implied that he rapes her, although there remains a degree of ambiguity. Mary Jacobus, a commentator on Hardys works, speculates that the ambiguity may have forced on the author to meet the requirements of his publisher. Tess goes home to her fathers cottage, where she keeps almost entirely to her room, the following summer, she gives birth to a sickly boy who lives only a few weeks. On his last night alive, Tess baptises him herself, because her father would not allow the parson to visit, the child is given the name Sorrow, but despite the baptism Tess can only arrange his burial in the shabby corner of the churchyard reserved for unbaptised infants. Tess adds a cross to the grave with flowers in an empty marmalade jar. More than two years after the Trantridge debacle, Tess, now twenty, has found employment outside the village and she works for Mr. and Mrs. Crick as a milkmaid at Talbothays Dairy. There, she befriends three of her fellow milkmaids, Izz, Retty, and Marian, and meets again Angel Clare, although the other milkmaids are in love with him, Angel singles out Tess, and the two fall in love
19.
Artistic Dress movement
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Artistic Dress was a fashion movement circa 1850-1900 that rejected highly structured and heavily trimmed Victorian trends in favour of beautiful materials and simplicity of design. It arguably developed in Britain in the early 1850s, influenced by artistic circles such as the Pre-Raphaelites and it subsequently developed into more specific categories such as Aesthetic Dress and Künstlerkleid on the continent. Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were conscious archaizers, emulating the work of the old masters and choosing romantic and they dressed their models in long flowing gowns loosely inspired by styles of the Middle Ages. These styles were adopted by the painters wives and models for everyday dress. Artistic dress was an extreme contrast to the tight corsets, hoop skirts and bustles, bright synthetic aniline dyes, the Aesthetes belief that the Arts should provide refined sensuous pleasure was a direct rejection of the reverence for simplicity and handwork propounded by William Morris. From artistic circles, artistic and aesthetic dress spread to fashionable ones, the delicate, lightly corseted tea gowns of the turn of the 20th century echo the lines of late aesthetic dress, and in their turn paved the way for the early Art Deco creations of Paul Poiret. Liberty & Co. tea gown of figured silk twill, c, los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.2007.211. Ashelford, Jane, The Art of Dress, Clothing and Society 1500-1914, Abrams,1996
20.
Victoria and Albert Museum
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The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is the worlds largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and these include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. The museum is a public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media. Like other national British museums, entrance to the museum has been free since 2001, the V&A covers 12.5 acres and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The museum owns the worlds largest collection of sculpture, with the holdings of Italian Renaissance items being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea, the East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world. Overall, it is one of the largest museums in the world, New 17th- and 18th-century European galleries were opened on 9 December 2015. These restored the original Aston Webb interiors and host the European collections 1600–1815, at this stage the collections covered both applied art and science. Several of the exhibits from the Exhibition were purchased to form the nucleus of the collection, by February 1854 discussions were underway to transfer the museum to the current site and it was renamed South Kensington Museum. In 1855 the German architect Gottfried Semper, at the request of Cole, produced a design for the museum, but it was rejected by the Board of Trade as too expensive. The site was occupied by Brompton Park House, this was extended including the first refreshment rooms opened in 1857, the official opening by Queen Victoria was on 22 June 1857. In the following year, late night openings were introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting, in these early years the practical use of the collection was very much emphasised as opposed to that of High Art at the National Gallery and scholarship at the British Museum. George Wallis, the first Keeper of Fine Art Collection, passionately promoted the idea of art education through the museum collections. From the 1860s to the 1880s the scientific collections had been moved from the museum site to various improvised galleries to the west of Exhibition Road. In 1893 the Science Museum had effectively come into existence when a director was appointed. The laying of the stone of the Aston Webb building on 17 May 1899 was the last official public appearance by Queen Victoria. It was during this ceremony that the change of name from the South Kensington Museum to the Victoria, the exhibition which the museum organised to celebrate the centennial of the 1899 renaming, A Grand Design, first toured in North America from 1997, returning to London in 1999
21.
Francis Leggatt Chantrey
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Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA was an English sculptor. He became the leading sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts. He left the Chantrey Bequest or Chantrey Fund for the purchase of works of art for the nation, Chantrey was born at Jordanthorpe near Norton, where his father had a small farm. His father, who dabbled in carpentry and wood-carving, died when Francis was twelve. In 1802 Chantrey paid £50 to buy out of his apprenticeship with Ramsay and immediately set up a studio as a portrait artist in Sheffield. For several years he divided his time between Sheffield and London, studying intermittently at the Royal Academy Schools, in the summer of 1802 he travelled to Dublin, where he fell very ill, losing all his hair. He exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy for a few years from 1804, but from 1807 onwards devoted himself mainly to sculpture. Asked later in life, as a witness in a case, whether he had ever worked for any other sculptors, he replied, No. His first recorded marble bust was one of the Rev. James Wilkinson and his first imaginative sculpture, a head of Satan was shown at the Royal Academy in 1808. Three of them were shown at the Royal Academy that year, on 23 November 1809 he married his cousin, Mary Ann Wale at St Marys Church, Twickenham. He also bought land to two more houses, a studio and offices. In 1811 he showed six busts in the Royal Academy, the subjects included Horne Tooke and Sir Francis Burdett, two political figures he greatly admired, his early mentor John Raphael Smith, and Benjamin West. Joseph Nollekens placed the bust of Tooke between two of his own, and the given to it is said to have had a significant influence on Chantreys career. In the wake of the exhibition he received commissions amounting to £2,000, in 1813 he was able to raise his price for a bust to a hundred and fifty guineas, and in 1822 to two hundred. He visited Paris in 1814, and again in 1815, this time with his wife, Thomas Stothard, in 1819 he went to Italy, accompanied by the painter John Jackson, and an old friend named Read. In Rome he met Thorvaldsen and Canova, getting to know the latter especially well, in 1828 Chantrey set up his own foundry in Eccleston Place, not far from his house and studio, where large-scale works in bronze, including equestrian statues, could be cast. His assistants would make a clay model based on the drawings. A plaster cast would be made of the model
22.
Charles George Gordon
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Major General Charles George Gordon CB, also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British Army officer and administrator. He saw action in the Crimean War as an officer in the British Army, but he made his military reputation in China, where he was placed in command of the Ever Victorious Army, a force of Chinese soldiers led by European officers. In the early 1860s, Gordon and his men were instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion, for these accomplishments, he was given the nickname Chinese Gordon and honours from both the Emperor of China and the British. He entered the service of the Khedive of Egypt in 1873 and later became the Governor-General of the Sudan, where he did much to suppress revolts, exhausted, he resigned and returned to Europe in 1880. A serious revolt broke out in the Sudan, led by a Muslim religious leader and self-proclaimed Mahdi. In early 1884 Gordon had been sent to Khartoum with instructions to secure the evacuation of soldiers and civilians. However, after evacuating about 2,500 British civilians, in defiance of those instructions, he retained a smaller group of soldiers, in the buildup to battle, the two leaders corresponded, each attempting to convert the other to his faith, but neither would accede. Only when public pressure to act had become irresistible did the government, with reluctance and it arrived two days after the city had fallen and Gordon had been killed. Gordon was born in Woolwich, London, a son of Major General Henry William Gordon, all of Gordons brothers also became Army officers. Gordon grew up in England, Ireland, Scotland and the Ionian Islands as his father was moved from post to post and he was educated at Fullands School in Taunton, Taunton School, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1843, Gordon was devastated when his favorite sibling, his sister Emily died of tuberculosis, writing years later humanly speaking it changed my life, it was never the same since. After her death, her place as Gordons favorite sibling was taken by his very religious older sister Augusta, as a cadet, Gordon showed exceptional talents at map-making and in designing fortifications, which led to him choosing to become a Royal Engineer or a sapper. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 23 June 1852, completing his training at Chatham. The sappers were an elite who performed the work, led storming parties, demolished obstacles in assaults, carried out rear-guard actions in retreats. As an officer, Gordon showed strong charisma and leadership, a man medium of stature, but with striking blue eyes, the charismatic Gordon had the ability to inspire men to follow him anywhere. Gordon was first assigned to construct fortifications at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, during his time in Milford Haven, Gordon was befriended by a young couple, Francis and Anne Drew, who introduced him to evangelical Protestantism. Gordon was especially impressed with Philippians 1,21 where St. Paul wrote, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain and he attended diverse congregations, including Roman Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist. Gordon, who said to a Roman Catholic priest that the church is like the British Army, one army but many regiments
23.
Academic art
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Academic art, or Academicism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. In this context it is often called academism, academicism, Lart pompier, and eclecticism, in this medicean institution students learned the arti del disegno and heard lectures on anatomy and geometry. Another academy, the Accademia di San Luca, was founded about a later in Rome. The Accademia di San Luca served a function and was more concerned with art theory than the Florentine one. Accademia di San Luca later served as the model for the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture founded in France in 1648, and which later became the Académie des beaux-arts. The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture was founded in an effort to distinguish artists who were practicing a liberal art from craftsmen. This emphasis on the component of artmaking had a considerable impact on the subjects. This battle of styles was a conflict over whether Peter Paul Rubens or Nicolas Poussin was a model to follow. Debates also occurred over whether it was better to learn art by looking at nature, academies using the French model formed throughout Europe, and imitated the teachings and styles of the French Académie. In England, this was the Royal Academy, one effect of the move to academies was to make training more difficult for women artists, who were excluded from most academies until the last half of the 19th century. This was partly because of concerns over the propriety of life classes with nude models, special arrangements were often made for female students until the 20th century. Since the onset of the debate, many artists worked between the two styles. In the 19th century, in the form of the debate, the attention. One artist after another was claimed by critics to have achieved the synthesis, among them Théodore Chassériau, Ary Scheffer, Francesco Hayez, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, and Thomas Couture. William-Adolphe Bouguereau, an academic artist, commented that the trick to being a good painter is seeing color. Another development during this period included adopting historical styles in order to show the era in history that the painting depicted, called historicism and this is best seen in the work of Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys, a later influence on James Tissot. Its also seen in the development of the Neo-Grec style, historicism is also meant to refer to the belief and practice associated with academic art that one should incorporate and conciliate the innovations of different traditions of art from the past. The art world also grew to give increasing focus on allegory in art, as artists attempted to synthesize these theories in practice, the attention on the artwork as an allegorical or figurative vehicle was emphasized
24.
Blue plaque
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The brainchild of British politician William Ewart in 1863, it is the oldest such scheme in the world. The worlds first blue plaques were erected in London in the 19th century to mark the homes and workplaces of famous people. This scheme continues to the present day, having been administered successively by the Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council, many other plaque schemes have since been initiated in the United Kingdom. Some are restricted to a geographical area, others to a particular theme of historical commemoration. The plaques erected by these schemes are manufactured in a variety of designs, shapes, materials, the term blue plaque may be used narrowly to refer to the official English Heritage scheme, but is often used informally to encompass all similar schemes. There are also commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris, Rome, Oslo, Dublin, and in cities in Australia, Canada, Russia. The forms these take vary, and they tend to be known as historical markers, the original blue plaque scheme was established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage. It is the oldest such scheme in the world, since 1984 English Heritage have commissioned Frank Ashworth to make the plaques which have then been inscribed by his wife, Sue, at their home in Cornwall. English Heritage plans to erect an average of twelve new blue plaques each year in London. After being conceived by politician William Ewart in 1863, the scheme was initiated in 1866 by Ewart, Henry Cole and the Society of Arts, the first plaque was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron at his birthplace,24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square. This house was demolished in 1889, the earliest blue plaque to survive, also put up in 1867, commemorates Napoleon III in King Street, St Jamess. Byron’s plaque was blue, but the colour was changed by the manufacturer Minton, in total the Society of Arts put up 35 plaques, fewer than half of which survive today. The Society only erected one plaque within the square-mile of the City of London, in 1879, it was agreed that the City of London Corporation would be responsible for erecting plaques within the City to recognise its jurisdictional independence. This demarcation has remained ever since, in 1901, the Society of Arts scheme was taken over by the London County Council, which gave much thought to the future design of the plaques. It was eventually decided to keep the shape and design of the Societys plaques, but to make them uniformly blue, with a laurel wreath. Though this design was used consistently from 1903 to 1938, some experimentation occurred in the 1920s, in 1921, the most common plaque design was revised, as it was discovered that glazed ceramic Doulton ware was cheaper than the encaustic formerly used. In 1938, a new design was prepared by an unnamed student at the LCCs Central School of Arts and Crafts and was approved by the committee. It omitted the decorative elements of earlier designs, and allowed for lettering to be better spaced and enlarged
25.
John Belcher (architect)
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John Belcher RIBA RA was an English architect and musician. Belcher was born in Southwark on 10 July 1841, London and his father of the same name was an established architect. They lived at 60 Trinity Church Square from 1849–52 and they had previously lived nearby at 3 Montague Terrace, where Belcher was born in 1841. In 1865, Belcher was made a partner with his father and he was chairman of the first meeting of the Art Workers Guild in 1884. His first work to be built was in the City of London, in 1890, he designed the hall of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, which was one of the first Neo-baroque buildings in London. It featured extensive sculptural work by Sir Hamo Thornycroft, Harry Bates and others, in 1900, again with Joass, he designed Electra House, in the City. Belchers major commissions outside London include Colchester Town Hall 1898-1902 and the Ashton Memorial, designed, both of these are in the Baroque style, typical of the lavish creations of the Edwardian era. Mappin Terraces, Zoological Gardens, London,1913, Belcher served as president of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1904 to 1906, in 1907 he won the Royal Gold Medal. During his time as president he was asked to judge the competition for the design of Hoves new public library, from a shortlist of ten he chose the design of Percy Robinson and W. Alban Jones. Belcher was also architect for the 1908 Franco-British exhibition at White City. He was elected Royal Academician in 1909, russia, Belgium, Germany, Spain and the United States elected him a member of their several architectural societies. He published Essentials in Architecture, An Analysis of the Principles & Qualities to be Looked for in Architecture. A deeply religious man, he was a prominent member of the Catholic Apostolic Church and wrote The History of the Ecclesiastical Movement, the Catholic Apostolic Church used the word Angel to denote a priest. He was known to the public as a solo bass singer, cello player. Belcher died at Champion Hill, Dulwich on 8 November 1913 and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery, after his death, Belchers practice was taken over by John James Joass, his partner since 1905. Arthur Beresford Pite Philip Mainwaring Johnston Edwardian Architecture, A Biographical Dictionary, A
26.
Alfred the Great
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Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest and he is one of only two English monarchs to be given the epithet the Great, the other being the Scandinavian Cnut the Great. He was also the first King of the West Saxons to style himself King of the Anglo-Saxons, details of Alfreds life are described in a work by the 10th-century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. In 2002, Alfred was ranked number 14 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Alfred was born in the village of Wanating, now Wantage, historically in Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex by his first wife, Osburh. In 853, at the age of four, Alfred is reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have sent to Rome, where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV. Victorian writers later interpreted this as a coronation in preparation for his eventual succession to the throne of Wessex. This is unlikely, his succession could not have foreseen at the time. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a consul and it may also be based on Alfreds later having accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, around 854–855. On their return from Rome in 856, Æthelwulf was deposed by his son Æthelbald, with civil war looming, the magnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a compromise. Æthelbald would retain the western shires, and Æthelwulf would rule in the east, when King Æthelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfreds brothers in succession, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred. Bishop Asser tells the story of how as a child Alfred won as a prize a book of Saxon poems, legend also has it that the young Alfred spent time in Ireland seeking healing. Alfred was troubled by health problems throughout his life and it is thought that he may have suffered from Crohns disease. Statues of Alfred in Winchester and Wantage portray him as a great warrior, evidence suggests he was not physically strong, and though not lacking in courage, he was noted more for his intellect than as a warlike character. During the short reigns of the two of his three elder brothers, Æthelbald of Wessex and Æthelberht of Wessex, Alfred is not mentioned. This arrangement may have been sanctioned by Alfreds father, or by the Witan, the arrangement of crowning a successor as royal prince and military commander is well known among other Germanic tribes, such as the Swedes and Franks, to whom the Anglo-Saxons were closely related. In 868, Alfred is recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in an attempt to keep the Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar the Boneless. At the end of 870, the Danes arrived in his homeland, the year which followed has been called Alfreds year of battles
27.
Winchester
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Winchester is a city and the county town of Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a government district. It is situated 61 miles south-west of London and 13.6 miles from Southampton, at the time of the 2011 Census, Winchester had a population of 45,184. The wider City of Winchester district which includes such as Alresford. Winchester developed from the Roman town of Venta Belgarum, which in turn developed from an Iron Age oppidum. Winchesters major landmark is Winchester Cathedral, one of the largest cathedrals in Europe, with the distinction of having the longest nave and overall length of all Gothic cathedrals in Europe. The city is home to the University of Winchester and Winchester College, the area around Winchester has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with three Iron Age hillforts, Orams Arbour, St. Catherines Hill, and Worthy Down all in the nearby vicinity. In the Late Iron Age, an urban settlement type developed, known as an oppidum. It was overrun by the confederation of Gaulish tribes known as the Belgae sometime during the first century BCE and it seems to have been known as Wentā or Venta, from the Brittonic for town or meeting place. After the Roman conquest of Britain, the settlement served as the capital of the Belgae and was distinguished as Venta Belgarum, Venta of the Belgae. Although in the years of the Roman province it was of subsidiary importance to Silchester and Chichester. At the beginning of the century, Winchester was given protective stone walls. At around this time the city covered an area of 144 acres, there was a limited suburban area outside the walls. Like many other Roman towns however, Winchester began to decline in the fourth century. Ford identifies the community as the Cair Guinntguic listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of Britain in his History of the Britains, amid the Saxon invasions of Britain, cemeteries dating to the 6th and 7th centuries suggest a revival of settlement. The city became known as Wintan-ceastre in Old English, in 648, King Cenwalh of Wessex erected the Church of SS Peter and Paul, later known as the Old Minster. This became a cathedral in the 660s when the West Saxon bishopric was transferred from Dorchester-on-Thames, the citys first mint appears to date from this period. In the early tenth century there were two new establishments, the convent of Nunnaminster, founded by Alfreds widow Ealhswith
28.
William Ewart Gladstone
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William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS was a British Liberal and earlier conservative politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times, more than any other person, Gladstone was also Britains oldest Prime Minister, he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old. Gladstone first entered Parliament in 1832, beginning as a High Tory, Gladstone served in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel. After the split of the Conservatives Gladstone was a Peelite – in 1859 the Peelites merged with the Whigs, as Chancellor Gladstone became committed to low public spending and to electoral reform, earning him the sobriquet The Peoples William. Gladstones first ministry saw many reforms including the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, after his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party, but from 1876 began a comeback based on opposition to Turkeys reaction to the Bulgarian April Uprising. Gladstones Midlothian Campaign of 1879–80 was an example of many modern political campaigning techniques. The government also passed the Third Reform Act, Back in office in early 1886, Gladstone proposed Irish home rule but this was defeated in the House of Commons in July. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep out of office, with one short break. In 1892 Gladstone formed his last government at the age of 82, the Second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was defeated in the Lords in 1893. Gladstone resigned in March 1894, in opposition to increased naval expenditure and he left Parliament in 1895 and died three years later aged 88. Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as The Peoples William or the G. O. M, Gladstone is consistently ranked as one of Britains greatest Prime Ministers. Born in 1809 in Liverpool, at 62 Rodney Street, William Ewart Gladstone was the son of the slave-owning merchant Sir John Gladstone. Although born and brought up in Liverpool, William Gladstone was of purely Scottish ancestry, in 1814 young Willy visited Scotland for the first time, as he and his brother John travelled with their father to Edinburgh, Biggar and Dingwall to visit their relatives. William and his brother were both made freemen of the burgh of Dingwall, in 1815 Gladstone also travelled to London and Cambridge for the first time with his parents. In London he attended a service of thanksgiving with his family at St Pauls Cathedral following the Battle of Waterloo, William Gladstone was educated from 1816 to 1821 at a preparatory school at the vicarage of St Thomass Church at Seaforth, close to his familys residence, Seaforth House. In December 1831 he achieved the double first-class degree he had long desired, Gladstone served as President of the Oxford Union debating society, where he developed a reputation as an orator, which followed him into the House of Commons. At university Gladstone was a Tory and denounced Whig proposals for parliamentary reform, following the success of his double first, William travelled with his brother John on a Grand Tour of Europe, visiting Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. On his return to England, William was elected to Parliament in 1832 as Tory Member of Parliament for Newark, partly through the influence of the local patron, the Duke of Newcastle
29.
Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
30.
Oliver Cromwell
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Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Cromwell was born into the gentry, albeit to a family descended from the sister of King Henry VIIIs minister Thomas Cromwell. Little is known of the first 40 years of his life as only four of his letters survive alongside a summary of a speech he delivered in 1628. He became an Independent Puritan after undergoing a conversion in the 1630s. He was a religious man, a self-styled Puritan Moses. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in the Short and he entered the English Civil War on the side of the Roundheads or Parliamentarians. Cromwell was one of the signatories of King Charles Is death warrant in 1649 and he was selected to take command of the English campaign in Ireland in 1649–1650. Cromwells forces defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country, during this period, a series of Penal Laws were passed against Roman Catholics, and a substantial amount of their land was confiscated. Cromwell also led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650 and 1651, as a ruler, he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy. He died from natural causes in 1658 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the Royalists returned to power in 1660, and they had his corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. In a 2002 BBC poll in Britain, Cromwell, sponsored by military historian Richard Holmes was selected as one of the ten greatest Britons of all time. However, his measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterised as genocidal or near-genocidal, Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. Katherine married Morgan ap William, son of William ap Yevan of Wales, Henry suggested to Sir Richard Williams, who was the first to use a surname in his family, that he use Cromwell, in honour of his uncle Thomas Cromwell. They had ten children, but Oliver, the child, was the only boy to survive infancy. Jasper was the uncle of Henry VII and great uncle of Henry VIII, Cromwells paternal grandfather Sir Henry Williams was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwells father Robert was of modest means but still a part of the gentry class, as a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes, Cromwell himself in 1654 said, I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. He was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St Johns Church and he went on to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos
31.
Palace of Westminster
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The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and for ceremonial purposes, the building is managed by committees appointed by both houses, which report to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker. The first royal palace was built on the site in the 11th century, part of the New Palaces area of 3.24 hectares was reclaimed from the Thames, which is the setting of its nearly 300-metre long façade, called the River Front. Barry was assisted by Augustus Pugin, an authority on Gothic architecture and style. The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom, Westminster has become a metonym for the UK Parliament, the Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Palace of Westminster site was important during the Middle Ages. Known in medieval times as Thorney Island, the site may have been first-used for a residence by Canute the Great during his reign from 1016 to 1035. St Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon monarch of England, Thorney Island and the surrounding area soon became known as Westminster. Neither the buildings used by the Anglo-Saxons nor those used by William I survive, the oldest existing part of the Palace dates from the reign of William Is successor, King William II. The Palace of Westminster was the principal residence in the late Medieval period. The predecessor of Parliament, the Curia Regis, met in Westminster Hall, simon de Montforts parliament, the first to include representatives of the major towns, met at the Palace in 1265. The Model Parliament, the first official Parliament of England, met there in 1295, in 1512, during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, fire destroyed the royal residential area of the palace. In 1534, Henry VIII acquired York Place from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, renaming it the Palace of Whitehall, Henry used it as his principal residence. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various law courts. Because it was originally a residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses. Important state ceremonies were held in the Painted Chamber which had originally built in the 13th century as the main bedchamber for King Henry III. The House of Commons, which did not have a chamber of its own, the Commons acquired a permanent home at the Palace in St Stephens Chapel, the former chapel of the royal palace, during the reign of Edward VI
32.
Victoria Embankment
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Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, the Victoria Embankments construction started in 1865 and was completed in 1870 under the direction of Joseph Bazalgette. It was a project of the Metropolitan Board of Works, the contractor for the work was Thomas Brassey. The original impetus was the need to provide London with a sewerage system. Another major consideration was the relief of congestion on the Strand, the project involved building out on to the foreshore of the River Thames, narrowing the river. The construction work required the purchase and demolition of much expensive riverside property, the cut-and-cover tunnel for the District Railway was built within the Embankment and roofed over to take the roadway. At ground level, in addition to the new roads, two gardens were laid out. One of these backs onto the government buildings of Whitehall, the gardens contain many statues, including a monument to Bazalgette. The Victoria section was the most complex of the three sections and it was much larger, more complex and more significant to the metropolis than the other two and officially opened on 13 July 1870 by the Prince of Wales and Princess Louise. When people refer to the Embankment they are referring to that portion of it. The total cost of the construction of the Victoria Embankment is estimated to be £1,260,000, the total cost includes the cost of materials used in the construction of the embankment. Construction of the Victoria Embankment proved to be difficult because of the grandness of it, parliament was assured that three years would be ample time to complete the project, which did not hold to be true. They had a labour force along with issues of the architect and property appraiser securing all the wharves and other property needed for access. There was also difficulty in acquiring contract requirement to access to steamboat landings at Westminster. In addition, time and money was lost in experimenting with a new type of cofferdam, in December 1878 Victoria Embankment became the first street in Britain to be permanently lit by electricity. The light was provided by 20 Yablochkov candles powered by a Gramme DC generator,16 March 1879 the system was extended to 40 lamps and 10 October to 55 lamps. Previously the street had been lit by gas, and in June 1884, shell Mex House, the Savoy Hotel and Savoy Place are located between the Embankment and the Strand. London Underground stations along Victoria Embankment are Westminster, Embankment, Charing Cross, Temple, the former Aldwych station was also located nearby
33.
John Bright
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John Bright, Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. He is most famous for battling the Corn Laws, the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. Bright also worked with Cobden in another free trade initiative, the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty of 1860 and this campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliaments endemic mistrust of the French. Bright sat in the House of Commons from 1843 to 1889, promoting trade, electoral reform. He was almost a lone voice in opposing the Crimean War and he was a spokesman for the middle class, and strongly opposed to the privileges of the landed aristocracy. In terms of Ireland, he sought to end the privileges of Anglicans, disestablished the Church of Ireland. He coined the phrase Mother of Parliaments, Bright was born at Greenbank, Rochdale, in Lancashire, England – one of the early centres of the Industrial Revolution. His father, Jacob Bright, was a much-respected Quaker, who had started a mill at Rochdale in 1809. Jacobs father, Abraham, was a Wiltshire yeoman, who, early in the 18th century, moved to Coventry, Jacob Bright was educated at the Ackworth School of the Society of Friends, and apprenticed to a fustian manufacturer at New Mills, Derbyshire. John Bright was his son by his wife, Martha Wood. Educated at Ackworth School, she was a woman of great strength of character, There were eleven children of this marriage, of whom John was the eldest surviving son. His younger brother was Jacob Bright, an MP and mayor and his sisters included Priscilla Bright and Margaret Bright Lucas. John was a child, and was sent as a day pupil to a boarding school near his home. A year at the Ackworth School, two years at Bootham School, York, and a year and a half at Newton, near Clitheroe, completed his education. He learned, he said, but little Latin and Greek, but acquired a great love of English literature, which his mother fostered. In his sixteenth year, he entered his fathers mill, in Rochdale, Jacob Bright was a leader of the opposition to a local church-rate. Rochdale was also prominent in the movement for reform, by which the town successfully claimed to have a member allotted to it under the Reform Bill. John Bright took part in both campaigns and he was an ardent Nonconformist, proud to number among his ancestors John Gratton, a friend of George Fox, and one of the persecuted and imprisoned preachers of the Religious Society of Friends
34.
Rochdale
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Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, population 211,699. Rochdale is the largest settlement and administrative centre, with a population of 107,926. Historically a part of Lancashire, Rochdales recorded history begins with an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 under Recedham Manor, the ancient parish of Rochdale was a division of the hundred of Salford and one of the largest ecclesiastical parishes in England comprising several townships. By 1251, Rochdale had become important enough to have granted a Royal charter. Subsequently, Rochdale flourished into a centre of northern Englands woollen trade, Rochdale rose to prominence during the 19th century as a major mill town and centre for textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the first ever industrialised towns. The Rochdale Canal—one of the major navigable broad canals of the United Kingdom—was a highway of commerce during this time used for the haulage of cotton, wool and coal to and from the area. The socioeconomic change brought by the success of Rochdales textile industry in the 19th century led to its rise to borough status, however, during the 20th century Rochdales spinning capacity declined towards an eventual halt. Rochdale is commonly cited as the birthplace of the modern Co-operative Movement, the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society was founded in 1844 by 28 local residents as a response to the high cost and frequent adulteration of basic foodstuffs by shopkeepers at the time. The Pioneers were notable for combining the notion of the patronage dividend alongside investing trading surplus for member benefit, the Rochdale Principles, the set of ideals which underpinned the society, are still used, in updated form, by the International Co-operative Alliance to this day. The Rochdale Pioneers shop was the precursor to The Co-operative Group, Rochdale today is a predominantly residential town. Rochdale Town Hall—a Grade I listed building—dates from 1871 and is one of the United Kingdoms finest examples of Victorian Gothic revival architecture, Rochdale seems to be named from its position on the River Roch but is recorded as Recedham in the Domesday Book. The name is derived from Old English reced meaning hall, and ham, over time, the name changed to Rachedale and eventually Rochdale. The rivers name is a back-formation from the Old English name, its name is /ˈroʊtʃ/, Rochdale however, is pronounced /ˈrɒtʃdeɪl/, with a short o. A Roman road, leading from Mamucium to Eboracum, crossed the moors at Blackstone Edge, during the time of the Danelaw, Rochdale was subjected to incursions by the Danes on the Saxons. Rochdale appears in the Domesday Book as Recedham, at the time of the Norman Conquest the manor was held by a Saxon thegn, Gamel. John Byron bought the manor in 1638 and it was sold by the poet, Lord Byron, in 1823, to the Deardens, who hold the title. Rochdale had no manor house but the Orchard built in 1702 and it was described as a red-brick building of no architectural distinction, on the north side of the river opposite the town hall and sometimes referred to as the Manor House
35.
Sir Daniel Dixon, 1st Baronet
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Sir Daniel Dixon, 1st Baronet PC was an Irish businessman and politician. Dixon was born on 28 March 1844 the son of Thomas and Sarah Dixon of Larne, County Antrim, his father was a merchant and he was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He joined his fathers timber business Thomas Dixon and Sons becoming a partner in 1864 and he served as Mayor of Belfast in 1892 and as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1893 and from 1901 to 1903 and from 1905 to 1906. In 1902 he was created a Baronet, of Ballymenock in the County of Antrim and he was also a Member of Parliament for Belfast North as an Ulster Unionist from 1905 to 1907. Dixon was head of one of the largest shipowning companies in Ireland, Dixon married, firstly, Lizzie, daughter of James Agnew, in 1867. After his first wifes death in 1868 he married, secondly, Annie, daughter of James Shaw and he died on 10 March 1907 in Belfast, aged 62, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son Thomas. New York, St Martins Press,1990, Leigh Rayments list of baronets Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Sir Daniel Dixon
36.
Belfast City Hall
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Belfast City Hall is the civic building of Belfast City Council. Located in Donegall Square, Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, it faces north and effectively divides the commercial, the site now occupied by Belfast City Hall was once the home of the White Linen Hall, an important international Linen Exchange. The Street that runs from the door of Belfast City Hall through the middle of Linen Quarter is Linen Hall Street. Plans for the City Hall began in 1888 when Belfast was awarded city status by Queen Victoria and this was in recognition of Belfasts rapid expansion and thriving linen, rope-making, shipbuilding and engineering industries. During this period Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the most populous city in Ireland, construction began in 1898 under the supervision of architect Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas and was completed in 1906 at a cost of £369,000. Belfast Corporation used their profits from the gas industry to pay for the construction of Belfast City Hall, local firms H&J Martin and WH Stephens were among the companies involved in construction. James G. Gamble, architect, was the clerk of works, the city hall in Durban, South Africa is almost an exact replica of Belfasts City Hall. It was built in 1910 and designed by Stanley G. Hudson, the Port of Liverpool Building, designed by Arnold Thornley and completed in 1913, is another very close relative. On 1 August 2006 the City Hall celebrated its centenary with a Century of Memories exhibition, on 3 December 2012, the City Council voted to limit the days that the Union Flag flies from City Hall to no more than 18 designated days. Since 1906, the flag had flown every day of the year. The move was backed by the Councils Irish nationalist Councillors and by its Alliance Party Councillors and it was opposed by the unionist Councillors, who had enjoyed a majority on the council until the Northern Ireland local elections,2011. On the night of the vote, unionist and loyalist protesters tried to storm City Hall and they held protests throughout Northern Ireland, some of which became violent. The exterior is mainly from Portland stone and is in the Baroque Revival style. It covers an area of one and a half acres and has an enclosed courtyard, featuring towers at each of the four corners, with a lantern-crowned 173 ft copper dome in the centre, the City Hall dominates the city centre skyline. As with other Victorian buildings in the city centre, the City Halls copper-coated domes are a distinctive green, the Titanic Memorial in Belfast is located on the grounds of Belfast City Hall. The design of the building is reminiscent of the Old Bailey in London, floodlights have been added to City Hall to light up the building in a variety of colours and combinations. Using the same technology as the Empire State Building in New York, a white illumination will be applied to the building, after dusk, and it will also be colour-washed on special dates. The interior has a number of features including The Porte-Cochère and Grand Entrance, The Grand Staircase, The Reception Room
37.
William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong
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William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong CB FRS was an English industrialist who founded the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing concern on Tyneside. He was also an eminent scientist, inventor and philanthropist, in collaboration with the architect Richard Norman Shaw, he built Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. He is regarded as the inventor of modern artillery, Armstrong was knighted in 1859 after giving his gun patents to the government. Armstrong was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, at 9 Pleasant Row, Shieldfield, although the house in which he was born no longer exists, an inscribed granite tablet marks the spot on which it once stood. At that time the area, next to the Pandon Dene, was rural and his father, also called William, was a corn merchant on the Newcastle quayside, who rose through the ranks of Newcastle society to become mayor of the town in 1850. An elder sister, Anne, born in 1802, was named after his mother, Armstrong was educated at private schools in Newcastle and Whickham, near Gateshead, until he was sixteen, when he was sent to Bishop Auckland Grammar School. While there, he visited the nearby engineering works of William Ramshaw. During his visits he met his wife, Ramshaw’s daughter Margaret. Armstrong’s father was set on him following a career in the law, and so he was articled to Armorer Donkin and he spent five years in London studying law and returned to Newcastle in 1833. In 1835 he became a partner in Donkin’s business and the firm became Donkin, Stable, Armstrong married Margaret Ramshaw in 1835, and they built a house in Jesmond Dene, on the eastern edge of Newcastle. Armstrong worked for years as a solicitor, but during his spare time he showed great interest in engineering. Armstrong was a keen angler, and while fishing on the River Dee at Dentdale in the Pennines, he saw a waterwheel in action. It struck Armstrong that much of the power was being wasted. When he returned to Newcastle, he designed an engine powered by water. Unfortunately, little interest was shown in the engine, Armstrong subsequently developed a piston engine instead of a rotary one and decided that it might be suitable for driving a hydraulic crane. In 1846 his work as an amateur scientist was recognized when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1845 a scheme was set in motion to provide piped water from distant reservoirs to the households of Newcastle. He claimed that his hydraulic crane could unload ships faster and more cheaply than conventional cranes, the Corporation agreed to his suggestion, and the experiment proved so successful that three more hydraulic cranes were installed on the Quayside. The success of his hydraulic crane led Armstrong to consider setting up a business to manufacture cranes and he therefore resigned from his legal practice
38.
Newcastle upon Tyne
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Newcastle is the most populous city in the North East and forms the core of the Tyneside conurbation, the eighth most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Newcastle is a member of the English Core Cities Group and is a member of the Eurocities network of European cities. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it became a county of itself, the regional nickname and dialect for people from Newcastle and the surrounding area is Geordie. Newcastle also houses Newcastle University, a member of the Russell Group, the city developed around the Roman settlement Pons Aelius and was named after the castle built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conquerors eldest son. The city grew as an important centre for the trade in the 14th century. The port developed in the 16th century and, along with the lower down the River Tyne, was amongst the worlds largest shipbuilding and ship-repairing centres. Newcastles economy includes corporate headquarters, learning, digital technology, retail, tourism and cultural centres, among its icons are Newcastle United football club and the Tyne Bridge. Since 1981 the city has hosted the Great North Run, a marathon which attracts over 57,000 runners each year. The first recorded settlement in what is now Newcastle was Pons Aelius and it was given the family name of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who founded it in the 2nd century AD. This rare honour suggests Hadrian may have visited the site and instituted the bridge on his tour of Britain, Pons Aelius population at this period was estimated at 2,000. Fragments of Hadrians Wall are visible in parts of Newcastle, particularly along the West Road, the course of the Roman Wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort in Wallsend—the walls end—and to the supply fort Arbeia in South Shields. After the Roman departure from Britain, completed in 410, Newcastle became part of the powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, conflicts with the Danes in 876 left the river Tyne and its settlements in ruin. After the conflicts with the Danes, and following the 1088 rebellion against the Normans, Monkchester was all, because of its strategic position, Robert Curthose, son of William the Conqueror, erected a wooden castle there in the year 1080. The town was known as Novum Castellum or New Castle. The wooden structure was replaced by a castle in 1087. The castle was again in 1172 during the reign of Henry II. Much of the keep which can be seen in the city dates from this period. Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was Englands northern fortress, incorporated first by Henry II, the city had a new charter granted by Elizabeth in 1589
39.
Cecil Rhodes
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Cecil John Rhodes PC was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa, who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, South Africas Rhodes University is also named after him. Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate, the son of a vicar, Rhodes grew up in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, and was a sickly child. He was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18. His De Beers diamond company, formed in 1888, retains its prominence into the 21st century, Rhodes entered the Cape Parliament in 1880, and a decade later became Prime Minister. After Rhodess death in 1902, at the age of 48, at the time of his death he was already a very controversial figure. One of Rhodess primary motivators in politics and business was his belief that the Anglo-Saxon race was, to quote his will. Most histories of South Africa covering the last decades of the century are contributions to the historiography of Cecil Rhodes. According to McFarlane, the aforementioned historiography may be divided into two categories, chauvinistic approval or utter vilification. Rhodes was born in 1853 in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England and he was the fifth son of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes and his wife Louisa Peacock Rhodes. His father was a Church of England clergyman who was proud of never having preached a sermon longer than 10 minutes and his siblings included Francis William Rhodes, who became an army officer. His father therefore determined to send him abroad to try the effect of a sea voyage, Herbert had already set up as a planter in Natal, South Africa, so Cecil was despatched on a sailing vessel to join Herbert in Natal. The voyage to Durban took him seventy days, and on 1 September 1870 he first set foot on African soil and his familys hope was that the climate would improve his health. They expected he would help his older brother Herbert who operated a cotton farm, when he first came to Africa, Rhodes lived on money lent by his aunt Sophia. After a brief stay with the Surveyor-General of Natal, Dr. P. C, sutherland, in Pietermaritzburg, Rhodes took an interest in agriculture. He joined his brother Herbert on his farm in the Umkomazi valley in Natal. The land was unsuitable for cotton, and the venture failed, in October 1871, 18-year-old Rhodes and his brother Herbert left the colony for the diamond fields of Kimberley
40.
Kimberley, Northern Cape
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Kimberley is the largest and capital city of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal, the city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Boer War. Notable personalities such as Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes here, Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure on Sept.2,1882. The first Stock Exchange in Africa was also built in Kimberley, in 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which was his fathers farm. He showed the pebble to his father who sold it, the pebble was purchased from Jacobs by Schalk van Niekerk, who later sold it. It proved to be a 21. 25-carat diamond, and became known as the Eureka, three years later, in 1869, an 83. 5-carat diamond, which became known as the Star of South Africa, was found nearby. This diamond was sold by van Niekerk for £11,200, Henry Richard Giddy recounted how Esau Damoense, the cook for prospector Fleetwood Rawstones Red Cap Party, found diamonds in 1871 on Colesberg Kopje after he was sent there to dig as punishment. Rawstorne took the news to the diggings of the De Beer brothers — his arrival there sparking off the famous New Rush which. Within a month 800 claims were cut into the hillock which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men, as the land was lowered so the hillock became a mine – in time, the world-renowned Kimberley Mine. The Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Griqua leader Nikolaas Waterboer all laid claim to the diamond fields, the Free State Boers in particular wanted the area as it lay inside the natural borders created by Orange and Vaal Rivers. Following the mediation that was overseen by the governor of Natal, the Keate Award went in favour of Waterboer, consequently, the territory known as Griqualand West was proclaimed on 27 October 1871. Colonial Commissioners arrived in New Rush on 17 November 1871 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor. Digger objections and minor riots led to Governor Barklys visit to New Rush in September the following year, Richard Southey would arrive as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873. Months passed however without any sign of the proclamation or of the new constitution and provision for representative government. The delay was in London where Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, insisted that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive decent and intelligible names. His Lordship declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, the matter was passed to Southey who gave it to his Colonial Secretary J. B. Currey. Roberts writes that when it came to renaming New Rush, proved himself a worthy diplomat and he made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it after His Lordship. New Rush became Kimberley, by Proclamation dated 5 July 1873, digger sentiment was expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it stated we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, and so our dream was gone
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South Africa
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South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
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Kew Gardens
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Kew Gardens is a botanical garden in southwest London that houses the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the collection contains more than 175,000 prints. It is one of Londons top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site, Kew Gardens has its own police force, Kew Constabulary, which has been in operation since 1847. Kew, the area in which Kew Gardens are situated, consists mainly of the gardens themselves, Royal residences in the area which would later influence the layout and construction of the gardens began in 1299 when Edward I moved his court to a manor house in neighbouring Richmond. That manor house was abandoned, however, Henry VII built Sheen Palace in 1501. Around the start of the 16th century courtiers attending Richmond Palace settled in Kew, early royal residences at Kew included Mary Tudors house, which was in existence by 1522 when a driveway was built to connect it to the palace at Richmond. Around 1600, the land that would become the gardens was known as Kew Field, the exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury, was enlarged and extended by Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, the widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The origins of Kew Gardens can be traced to the merging of the estates of Richmond. William Chambers built several structures, including the lofty Chinese pagoda built in 1761 which still remains. George III enriched the gardens, aided by William Aiton and Sir Joseph Banks, the old Kew Park, was demolished in 1802. The Dutch House adjoining was purchased by George III in 1781 as a nursery for the royal children and it is a plain brick structure now known as Kew Palace. Some early plants came from the garden established by William Coys at Stubbers in North Ockendon. The collections grew somewhat haphazardly until the appointment of the first collector, Francis Masson, capability Brown, who became Englands most renowned landscape architect, applied for the position of master gardener at Kew, and was rejected. In 1840 the gardens were adopted as a botanical garden, in large part due to the efforts of the Royal Horticultural Society. Under Kews director, William Hooker, the gardens were increased to 30 hectares and the grounds, or arboretum, extended to 109 hectares. The first curator was John Smith, the Palm House was built by architect Decimus Burton and iron-maker Richard Turner between 1844 and 1848, and was the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron. It is considered the worlds most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure, the structures panes of glass are all hand-blown. The Temperate House, which is twice as large as the Palm House and it is now the largest Victorian glasshouse in existence
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Leighton House Museum
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The Leighton House Museum is a museum in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea in London. The former home of the painter Frederic, Lord Leighton, it has open to the public since 1929. Built for Leighton by the architect and designer George Aitchison, it is a Grade II* listed building and it is noted for its elaborate Orientalist and aesthetic interiors. It is open to the public daily except Tuesdays, and is a museum to 18 Stafford Terrace. The first part of the house was designed in 1864 by the architect George Aitchison, building commenced shortly afterwards, and the house, which cost £4500 equivalent to £399,030 in 2015, was ready for occupation by the end of the year. The building is of red Suffolk bricks with Caen Stone dressings in a classical style. The architect extended the building over 30 years, the first phase was only three windows wide, the main room was the first floor studio, facing north, originally 45 by 25 feet, with a large central window to provide plenty of light for painting. There was also a gallery at the east end, and a staircase for use by models. The house was extended to the east in 1869–70, additionally, a major extension was made in 1877–79, the two-storey Arab Hall, built to house Leightons collection of tiles collected during visits to the Middle East. According to Aitchison and Walter Crane, the design was based on the palace of La Zisa in Palermo, the 17th-century tiles are complemented by carved wooden lattice-work windows of the same period from Damascus. There are also large 16th-century Turkish tiles, the west wall has a wooden alcove with inset 14th-century tiles. The room also contains Victorian elements, the capitals of the smaller columns are by Sir Joseph Boehm, from Aitchisons designs. The capitals of the columns, gilded and carved in the shape of birds, are by Randolph Caldecot. The mosaic frieze was designed by Walter Crane, the marble work was by George P. White. Elaborate decorative paintwork adorns the ceiling and in the centre of the floor there is a fountain. The tiles in the passage to the Arab Hall are by William de Morgan, in 1889 an additional winter studio was added to the building. The final addition by Aitchison was the picture gallery in 1895. After Leighton died in 1896, the contents of the house were sold, including at least one thousand of his own drawings, in 1927 Mrs Henry Perrin offered to pay for additional gallery space
