1.
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
2.
Stockton-on-Tees
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Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in the ceremonial county of County Durham, North East England. It is the settlement in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees. The town sits within the Tees Valley, and the borough had a population of 191,000 in 2011 estimates. Stockton is an Anglo-Saxon name with the typical Anglo-Saxon place name ending ton meaning farm, the name is thought by some to derive from the Anglo-Saxon word Stocc meaning log, tree trunk or wooden post. Stockton could therefore mean a farm built of logs and this is disputed, because when the word Stocc forms the first part of a place name it usually indicates a derivation from the similar word Stoc, meaning cell, monastery or place. Stoc names along with places called Stoke or Stow, usually indicate farms which belonged to a manor or religious house. It is thought that Stockton fell into this category and perhaps the name is an indication that Stockton was an outpost of Durham or Norton which were both important Anglo-Saxon centres. This is a matter of dispute, but Stockton was only a part of Norton until the eighteenth century, today the roles have been reversed and Norton has been demoted to a part of Stockton. Stockton began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement on high ground close to the bank of the River Tees. The manor of Stockton was created around 1138 and was purchased by Bishop Pudsey of Durham in 1189, during the 13th century, the bishop turned the village of Stockton into a borough. When the bishop freed the serfs of Stockton, craftsmen came to live in the new town, the bishop had a residence in Stockton Castle, which was just a fortified manor house. The first recorded reference to the castle was in 1376, stocktons market can trace its history to 1310, when Bishop Bek of Durham granted a market charter – to our town of Stockton a market upon every Wednesday for ever. The town grew into a little port, exporting wool. However even by the standards of the time, medieval Stockton-on-Tees was a town with a population of only around 1,000. The Scots captured Stockton Castle in 1644 and occupied it until 1646 and it was destroyed at the order of Oliver Cromwell at the end of the Civil War. A shopping centre, the Castlegate Centre, now occupies the castle area, No known accurate depictions of the castle exist. The Town House was built in 1735 and the first theatre in Stockton opened in 1766, in 1771 a five arch stone bridge was built replacing the nearby Bishops Ferry. Until the opening of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge in 1911, this was the lowest bridging point on the Tees, from the end of the 18th century the Industrial Revolution changed Stockton from a small and quiet market town into a flourishing centre of heavy industry
3.
County Durham
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County Durham is a county in North East England. The county town is Durham, a cathedral city, the largest settlement is Darlington, closely followed by Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees. It borders Tyne and Wear to the north east, Northumberland to the north, Cumbria to the west, historically, the county included southern Tyne and Wear, including Gateshead and Sunderland. The county has a mixture of mining and farming heritage, as well as a railway industry. Its economy was based on coal and iron mining. It is an area of regeneration and promoted as a tourist destination, in the centre of the city of Durham, Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral are a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. Many counties are named after their town, and the expected form here would be Durhamshire. Thus County Durham is a form of County of Durham. The situation regarding the name with regards to present-day local government is less clear. The structural change legislation which in 2009 created the present unitary council refers to the county of County Durham, the former postal county was named County Durham to distinguish it from the post town of Durham. The ceremonial county of Durham is administered by four unitary authorities, the ceremonial county has no administrative function, but remains the area to which the Lord Lieutenant of Durham and the High Sheriff of Durham are appointed. The Borough of Hartlepool, until 1 April 1996 the borough was one of four districts in the relatively short-lived county of Cleveland, the part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees that is north of the centre of the River Tees. Stockton was also part of Cleveland until that countys abolition in 1996, the remainder of the borough is part of the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. Durham Constabulary operate in the area of the two districts of County Durham and Darlington. Ron Hogg was first elected the Durham Police and Crime Commissioner for the force on 15 November 2012, the other areas in the ceremonial county fall within the police area of the Cleveland Police. Air Ambulance services are provided by the Great North Air Ambulance, the charity operates 3 helicopters including one at Durham Tees Valley Airport covering the County Durham area. Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team, based at the Durham Constabulary base in Barnard Castle, respond to search, Cuthbert between Tyne and Tees or the Liberty of Haliwerfolc. The bishops special jurisdiction rested on claims that King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had granted a substantial territory to St Cuthbert on his election to the see of Lindisfarne in 684
4.
Westmorland
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Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed a county from 1889 to 1974, after which the whole county was administered by the new administrative county of Cumbria. At the time of Domesday Book in 1086, parts of the county were considered either to part of Yorkshire or to be within the separate Kingdom of Strathclyde. The Normans conquered the area that is now Cumbria in 1092 during the reign of William II and created the baronies of Kendal and these were originally distinct jurisdictions with separate sheriffs, but were formed into a single county of Westmorland in 1226/7. Before 1226 the Barony of Kendal was connected to the Earldom or Honour of Lancaster while that of Westmorland was part of the Earldom of Carlisle. The historic county boundaries are with Cumberland to the north, County Durham and Yorkshire to the east, windermere forms part of the western border with Lancashire north of the sands, and Ullswater part of the border with Cumberland. The highest point of the county is Helvellyn at 950m, according to the 1831 census the county covered an area of 485,990 acres. Appleby, the county town, formed a historic borough and was not reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. Kendal was reformed as a borough in 1835. Rather than being divided into hundreds, Westmorland was subdivided into the two baronies of Westmorland and Kendal, Westmorland had no county boroughs throughout its history, so the administrative county, the area under the control of the county council, was coterminous with the geographic county. The county council was based at Kendal, rather than the county town of Appleby-in-Westmorland. Despite their title, many of Westmorlands urban districts, such as Lakes, Grasmere, according to the 1971 census, Westmorland was the second least populated administrative county in England, after Rutland. The area now forms parts of the districts of South Lakeland, Westmorland County Council was granted a coat of arms by the College of Arms in 1926. The design of the referred to the two components of the county, on two red bars was placed a gold apple tree. The crest above the shield was the head of a ram of the local Herdwick breed, on the rams forehead was a shearmans hook, a tool used in the handling of wool. The hook was part of the insignia of the borough of Kendal, in 1974 the successor parish council formed for the former borough of Appleby adopted the name Appleby-in-Westmorland. The final recommendations, published in October 1994, did not include such recommendations, in September 2011, the Westmorland Association, a local society which promotes the countys identity, successfully registered the Flag of Westmorland with the Flag Institute. Sir Thomas Strickland carried the Flag of St. George at the battle of Agincourt, the Parrs ancestral castle, Kendal Castle, is located in Kendal
5.
Yeoman
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A yeoman /ˈjoʊmən/ was a member of a social class in late medieval to early modern England. A specialized meaning in naval terminology, petty officer in charge of supplies, the term is first recorded c. It may be a contraction of Old English iunge man, meaning young man, the Canons Yeomans Prologue and Tale appears in Geoffrey Chaucers Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400. During the late 14th to 18th centuries, yeomen were farmers who owned land and their wealth and the size of their landholding varied. Often it was hard to distinguish minor landed gentry from the wealthier yeomen, the Concise Oxford Dictionary states that a yeoman was a person qualified by possessing free land of 40/- annual value, and who can serve on juries and vote for a Knight of the Shire. He is sometimes described as a landowner, a farmer of the middle classes. The term had a sense as in the Yeomanry Cavalry of the late 18th century. The yeoman archer was unique to England and Wales, though Kentish Weald and Cheshire archers were noted for their skills, it appears that the bulk of the yeomanry was from the English and Welsh Marches. The original Yeomen of the Guard chartered in 1485 were most likely of Brittonic descent, including Welshmen and they were established by King Henry VII, himself a Briton who was exiled in Brittany during the Wars of the Roses. He recruited his forces mostly from Wales and the West Midlands of England on his journey to victory at Bosworth Field, Yeomen were often constables of their parish, and sometimes chief constables of the district, shire or hundred. Many yeomen held the positions of bailiffs for the High Sheriff or for the shire or hundred, other civic duties would include churchwarden, bridge warden, and other warden duties. It was also common for a yeoman to be an overseer for his parish, Yeomen, whether working for a lord, king, shire, knight, district or parish served in localised or municipal police forces raised by or led by the landed gentry. Some of these roles, in particular those of constable and bailiff were carried down through families, Yeomen often filled ranging, roaming, surveying, and policing roles. In Chaucers Friars Tale, a yeoman who is a bailiff of the forest who tricks the Summoner turns out to be the devil ready to grant wishes already made, the earlier class of franklins were similar to yeomen, wealthy peasant landowners, freeholders or village officials. They were typically village leaders, constables or mayors, Franklin militias were similar to later yeomanries. Yeomen took over roles in the 14th century as many of them became leaders, constables, sheriffs, justices of the peace, mayors. It was too much, for even ‘valets’ known as ‘yeoman archers’ were forbidden to be returned to parliament, the yeoman also comprised a military class or status. In the United States, yeomen were identified in the 18th and 19th centuries as non-slaveholding, small landowning, in Southern areas where land was poor, like East Tennessee, the landowning yeomen were typically subsistence farmers, but some managed to grow some crops for market
6.
Thomas Warton
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Thomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England and he is sometimes called Thomas Warton the younger to distinguish him from his father Thomas Warton the elder. His most famous poem remains The Pleasures of Melancholy, a work of the Graveyard poets. Warton was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, the son of poet Thomas Warton, the Elder, as a youngster, Warton demonstrated a strong predilection toward writing poetry, a skill he would continue to develop all of his life. In fact, Warton translated one of Martials epigrams at nine and his early education was given to him by his father. At sixteen years of age he enrolled at Winchester College, later moving to Trinity College and he graduated from Oxford in 1747, where he subsequently became a Fellow. Warton was selected as Poet Laureate of Oxford in 1747 and again in 1748 and his duty in this post was to write a poem about a selected patroness of the University, which would be read to her on a specially appointed day. Warton was appointed Professor of Poetry at the university in 1757, in 1771 he was appointed rector of Kiddington in Oxfordshire, a post he held until his death. In 1785, he was appointed Camden Professor of History, as well as poet laureate and he was a friend and rival of Samuel Johnson, and his poetry was greatly influenced by earlier English poets such as Chaucer, Drayton, Fairfax, and Spenser. Among other important contributions, Warton, along with his brother, was among the first to argue that Sir Thopas, Warton contributed to the general project of the ballad revival. He was a supporter of the poetry of Thomas Gray—a fact that Johnson satirized in his parody Hermit hoar. In 1749, Warton penned The Triumph of Isis, a poem in praise of Oxford, published anonymously, The Triumph of Isis rebutted William Mason’s Isis, an Elegy published the previous year, which was anything but flattering to Oxford. Following the success of The Triumph of Isis, Warton wrote Newmarket, a Satire and his complete poetical works were included in an anthology that has been reissued. Wartons first major work was Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser. He is, however, best known for the three-volume The History of English Poetry, although the work was criticized for its many inaccuracies, it is nonetheless considered a highly important and influential historical tome. In 1782 he wrote The History and Antiquities of Kiddington, an example of English local history. As a poet, Warton was more inclined toward light and humorous verse, odes and his sonnets helped to revive the form, which had fallen out of fashion. He is remembered for his interest in primitivism, which was an important stage toward romanticism, Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser
7.
The History of English Poetry
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The History of English Poetry, from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century by Thomas Warton was a pioneering and influential literary history. It is generally acknowledged to be the first narrative English literary history, Warton probably began researching the History in the 1750s, but did not actually begin writing in earnest until 1769. He conceived of his work as tracing the transitions from barbarism to civility in English poetry, instead he began with the impact of the Norman Conquest on the English language, before moving on to the vernacular chronicles. Then follow a series of studies of various Middle English romances, of Piers Plowman, the volume ends with a long and detailed look at the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. The second volume appeared in 1788 and he studies the Scottish Chaucerians in some detail, then returns to England and John Skelton. The volume ends with chapters on the plays, and on continental humanism. The third volume, published in 1791, begins with a dissertation on the Gesta Romanorum, one of many sections of the History to fall out of chronological sequence. He moves on to the Earl of Surrey, Thomas Wyatt, Tottels Miscellany, John Heywood, Thomas More, and another out-of-sequence study, then come The Mirror for Magistrates, Thomas Sackville, Richard Edwardes, and finally a general survey of Elizabethan poetry. His fourth volume was never published complete, though 88 pages of it were printed in 1789, as the state of medievalist scholarship advanced the need for revision in Wartons History became increasingly felt. In 1824 a new and expanded edition of the History was published, with notes by, among others, Joseph Ritson, George Ashby, Francis Douce, Thomas Park. The 1840 edition, by Richard Taylor, contained further notes by Frederic Madden, Thomas Wright, Richard Garnett, Benjamin Thorpe, J. M. Kemble, finally, William Carew Hazlitt edited the History afresh in 1871. The contributors to this version included Frederic Madden, Thomas Wright, Walter Skeat, Richard Morris, Wartons History had all the advantages and disadvantages of a pioneering work. Being almost the first work to give general readers any information on Middle English poetry it had the attraction of novelty, leading to a generally favourable response to the first edition. Of the third volume the same magazine wrote that it does credit to Mr. Wartons taste, judgment, and erudition. Edward Gibbon mentioned the History in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, saying it had accomplished with the taste of a poet. But the praise was not unanimous, horace Walpole and William Mason both professed themselves annoyed by Wartons habit of throwing in illustrative material indiscriminately. This led to a long and sometimes ill-tempered correspondence in the journals between Warton, Ritson, and their respective supporters, Ritson kept up the attack in successive books through the rest of his life, culminating in the viciously personal Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy in 1802. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica confirmed that his book is still indispensable to the student of English poetry, though Wartons History no longer enjoys the same position as an authority on early poetry, it is still appreciated
8.
Samuel Johnson
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Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history. He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous biography in English literature, born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentlemans Magazine and his early works include the biography Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755 and it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship. This work brought Johnson popularity and success, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnsons was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he travelled to Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Johnson was a tall and robust man. His odd gestures and tics were disconcerting to some on first meeting him, after a series of illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Born on 18 September 1709, to Michael Johnson, a bookseller and he did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborns health, his aunt exclaimed that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street. Since it was feared that the baby die, the vicar of St Marys was summoned to perform a baptism. Two godfathers were chosen, Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, Johnsons health improved and he was put to wet-nurse with Joan Marklew. He soon contracted scrofula, known at time as the Kings Evil because it was thought royalty could cure it. Sir John Floyer, former physician to King Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the royal touch, however, the ritual was ineffective, and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scars across his face and body. Johnson demonstrated signs of intelligence as a child, and his parents, to his later disgust. His education began at the age of three, and was provided by his mother, who had him memorise and recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer. When Samuel turned four, he was sent to a nearby school, a year later, Johnson went to Lichfield Grammar School, where he excelled in Latin. During this time, Johnson started to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his years
9.
George Steevens
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George Steevens was an English Shakespearean commentator. He was born at Poplar, the son of a captain and he was educated at Eton College and at Kings College, Cambridge, where he remained from 1753 to 1756. Leaving the university without a degree, he settled in chambers in the Inner Temple, moving later to a house on Hampstead Heath and he also accumulated a large collection of Hogarth prints, and his notes on the subject were incorporated in John Nicholss Genuine Works of Hogarth. He began his work as a Shakespearean editor with reprints of the editions of Shakespeares plays. Samuel Johnson was impressed by this work, and suggested that Steevens should prepare a complete edition of Shakespeare, the result, known as Johnsons and Steevenss edition, was The Works of Shakespeare with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators, Johnsons contributions to which were very slight. The definitive result of his researches was embodied in an edition of fifteen volumes, in the 20 years between 1773 and 1793, Steevens was less harmlessly engaged in criticizing his fellows and playing malicious practical jokes on them. Dr Johnson, who was one of his staunchest friends, said he had come to live the life of an outlaw and he was one of the foremost in exposing the Chatterton-Rowley and the Ireland forgeries. He died at Hampstead on 22 January 1800, a monument to his memory by John Flaxman, with an inscription commemorating his Shakespearian labours, was erected in Poplar Chapel. The sale catalogue of his library is in the British Museum. Steevenss Shakespeare was re-issued by Reed in 1803, in 21 volumes and this, which is known as the first variorum edition, was reprinted in 1813. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1767, Shakespeares editors This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. “Boswell, George Steevens, and the Johnsonian Biography Wars”, the Age of Johnson, A Scholarly Annual,22
"Ritson, Joseph". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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