Philip Henry Gosse FRS, known to his friends as Henry, was an English naturalist and popularizer of natural science the inventor of the seawater aquarium, a painstaking innovator in the study of marine biology. Gosse created and stocked the first public aquarium at the London Zoo in 1853, coined the term "aquarium" when he published the first manual, The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea, in 1854, his work was the catalyst for an aquarium craze in early Victorian England. Gosse was the author of Omphalos, an attempt to reconcile the geological ages presupposed by Charles Lyell with the biblical account of creation. After his death, Gosse was portrayed as a despotic father of uncompromising religious views in Father and Son, a memoir written by his son, Edmund Gosse, a poet and critic. Philip Henry Gosse was born in Worcester in 1810 of an itinerant painter of miniature portraits and a lady's maid, he spent his childhood in Poole, where his aunt, Susan Bell, taught him to draw and introduced him to zoology.

She had taught her own son, Thomas Bell, twenty years older and became a great friend to Gosse. At fifteen he began work as a clerk in the counting house of George Sons in Poole. In 1827 he sailed to Newfoundland to serve as a clerk in the Carbonear premises of Slade, Elson and Co. There he became a dedicated, self-taught student of Newfoundland entomology, "the first person systematically to investigate and to record the entomology" of the island. In 1832 Gosse experienced a religious conversion and, as he said, "solemnly and uprightly, took God for my God."In 1835 he left Newfoundland for Compton, Lower Canada, where he farmed unsuccessfully for three years. He tried to establish a commune with two of his religious friends; the experience deepened his love for natural history, locals referred to him as "that crazy Englishman who goes about picking up bugs." During this time he became a member of the Natural History Society of Montreal and submitted specimens to its museum. In 1838 Gosse taught eight months for Reuben Saffold, the owner of Belvoir plantation, near Pleasant Hill, Alabama.

In this period, planters hired private tutors to teach their children. Gosse studied and drew the local flora and fauna, assembling an unpublished volume, Entomologia Alabamensis, on insect life in the state; the cotton plantation was in the Black Belt of Alabama, Saffold held numerous enslaved laborers. Gosse recorded his negative impressions of slavery published as Letters from Alabama. Returning to England in 1839, Gosse was hard pressed to make a living, subsisting on eightpence a day, his fortunes began to improve when John Van Voorst, the leading publisher of naturalist writing, agreed, on the recommendation of Thomas Bell, to publish his Canadian Naturalist. The book, set as a conversation between a father and his son, was praised, it is now considered to demonstrate that Gosse "had a practical grasp of the importance of conservation, far ahead of his time."Gosse opened a "Classical and Commercial School for Young Gentlemen" while keeping detailed records of his microscopic investigations of pond life cyclopidae and rotifera.

He began to preach to the Wesleyan Methodists and lead a Bible class. In 1842, he became so captivated by the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ that he severed his connection with the Methodists and joined the Plymouth Brethren; these dissenters emphasized the Second Coming while rejecting liturgy and an ordained ministry—although they otherwise endorsed the traditional doctrines of Christianity as represented by the creeds of the Methodist and the Anglican Church. In 1843, Gosse gave up the school to write An Introduction to Zoology for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and to draw some of the illustrations. Writing the work inspired him to further his interest in the flora and fauna of the seashore, he showed in his book that he was a creationist, typical of pre-Darwinian naturalists. In October 1844 Gosse sailed to Jamaica, where he served as a professional collector for dealer Hugh Cuming. Although Gosse worked hard during his eighteen months on the island, he called this period his "'holiday' in Jamaica."

Gosse's study specialized in birds, Gosse has been called "the father of Jamaican ornithology." Gosse hired black youths as assistants and praised one of them, Samuel Campbell, in his Jamaican books. For Christian companionship he enjoyed the company of Moravian missionaries and their black converts, he preached to the Moravian congregation. On his return to London in 1846, Gosse wrote a trilogy on the natural history of Jamaica including A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, it is described as "written in a congenial style and established his reputation both as a naturalist and a writer." In the field of herpetology, Gosse described several new species of reptiles endemic to Jamaica. Back in England, Gosse wrote books in his out; as his financial situation stabilized, Gosse courted Emily Bowes, a forty-one-year-old member of the Brethren, both a strong personality and a gifted writer of evangelical tracts. They married in November 1848, their union was an happy one; as D. J. Taylor has written, "the word'uxorious' seems to have minted to define" Gosse.

Gosse's only son was born on 21 September 1849. Gosse noted the event in his diary with the words, "E. delivered of a son

Sir John Povey was an English-born judge who had a successful career in Ireland, holding office as Baron of the Court of Exchequer and subsequently as. Lord Chief Justice of Ireland during the years 1673–9, he was born at Woodseaves, Market Drayton, eldest son of John Povey. Thomas Povey, the friend of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, who features in Pepys' Diary, was his cousin, he was educated at Trinity College and matriculated in 1636. He entered Gray's Inn in 1638 and was called to the Bar in 1645, he is first heard of in Ireland in 1658, when he was acting as legal advisor to Sir John Barrington, 3rd Baronet, a politician and landowner who, although he was a cousin of Oliver Cromwell, had refused to sit as one of the judges at the trial of Charles I. Povey went on the Munster circuit, did well at the Irish Bar, brought his family to live in Ireland, he lived at Nicholas St. in Dublin, bought Powerstown House, outside Dublin city. After the Restoration of Charles II, Povey continued to prosper: James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland thought well of him, while his cousin Thomas was now Treasurer to the future Catholic King James II.

He was a Commissioner of Revenue Appeals. He was appointed third Baron of the Exchequer in 1663. One of his more notable judgments was to allow the indictment of several persons for aiding and abetting murder during the Irish Rebellion of 1641. In 1673 the office of Lord Chief Justice fell vacant; the most qualified candidates, although both had serious health problems, were Povey and Sir Robert Booth. Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, supported Booth, but Charles II, who favoured toleration of Roman Catholics so far as possible, rejected him as being too strong a Protestant. Povey, with his connection to the future James II's household, was an acceptable compromise, he was knighted, given the Freedom of the City of Dublin. He earned praise for his service as Chief Justice, it was suggested that he be might be transferred to the English Bench in 1675, he went to France in hope of a cure, but died at Bordeaux early in 1679. His body was brought back to Ireland, he was buried in St. Michan's Church, Dublin In 1648 he married Elizabeth Folliott, eldest daughter of Guthlake Folliott of Martin Hussingtree and his wife Elizabeth.

They had four children: John Povey M. P. Charles, tentatively identified as the writer and entrepreneur Charles Povey Richard Mary, who married Dr. William Smyth, Bishop of Raphoe, Bishop of Kilmore, their descendants were the well known landowning family of Barbavilla Manor, County Westmeath

Melee is a man-to-man combat boardgame designed by Steve Jackson, released in 1977 by Metagaming Concepts. In 2019, Melee was re-released by Steve Jackson Games. Melee was designed by Steve Jackson, was released in 1977 as MicroGame #3 by Metagaming Concepts. At the time Jackson was getting involved with Dungeons & Dragons, but he found the various-sized dice irritating, he found the combat rules confusing and unsatisfying the lack of tactics, so he designed Melee as something different. Jackson had joined the Society for Creative Anachronism to gain a more visceral understanding of actual combat, based Melee on his studies of the SCA; when designing Melee, Jackson saw the possibility to expand it into a full fantasy roleplaying game that could compete with D&D, thus before Melee was released, Metagaming started advertising that full RPG system, The Fantasy Trip. Jackson put together the game system's magic rules, which were published as Wizard, MicroGame #6. Metagaming published MicroQuest #1, Death Test, a short adventure for use with Melee or Wizard.

Jackson planned for The Fantasy Trip to be released as a boxed set, but publisher Howard M. Thompson decided that the price was too high and so he split the product into four books: Advanced Melee, which had the combat extensions to the Melee system, Advanced Wizard, which had the magic extensions, In the Labyrinth, which had the Games Master rules, Tollenkar's Lair, a GM adventure. Jackson was unhappy with this change and left the company the same year and founded Steve Jackson Games. Metagaming released Dragons of Underearth, a roleplaying game, a cut-down version of The Fantasy Trip based on the original Melee and Wizard rules. Metagaming released a number of small games in plastic bags held closed with cellophane tape; the game came with a blank hex map overlaid with "megahexes", a counter sheet of men and monsters, a 16-page rulebook. After Metagaming went out of business, Steve Jackson's GURPS borrowed from his first role-playing rule set The Fantasy Trip, with a similar minimal set of primary attributes to determine in-game results: Strength, Intelligence, a new ability, Health.

In late 2017, Jackson used a provision of U. S. copyright law to reclaim the rights to The Fantasy Trip, allowing Steve Jackson Games to re-release Melee in 2019. Melee was an arena combat game where each player generated a character by purchasing Strength and equipment as part of a point-based character creation system, these characters fought via a tactical combat system that used six-sided dice; every figure had dexterity attribute. Strength governed the size of weapons used, with higher strength weapons allowing an increase to the damage one inflicted in combat, served as "hit points," dictating how much damage one could take. Dexterity determined how one was to hit one's opponent; the two attributes totaled to 24 for a beginning figure. In addition, each figure had a Movement Allowance, or MA, that indicated how many hexes could be moved in a turn on the map. Armor could be worn, which would reduce the amount of damage taken in combat while lowering one's dexterity and MA; each attack, whether missile or melee, is governed by throwing three six sided dice.

If the total rolled is equal or less than the attacking figure's adjusted dexterity score a hit is scored. Each weapon has a wounding capability. For example, a dagger does 1 die minus 1 point; this damage is adjusted by any protection employed by the opponent. For example, chain mail stops 3 hits of damage. Wounds can affect a figure either by giving a temporary or permanent penalty to dexterity, or single powerful blows can knock a figure down. A figure that wins a fight gains experience points. Advanced Melee was tied more to In the Labyrinth, featured more combat options, such as called shots, additional weapons, greater detail in general. IQ becomes important for allowing a figure to use combat relevant talents, such as Fencing, Two Weapons Combat, so forth, making figures more varied. David Ritchie reviewed Melee in Ares Magazine #1, rating it a 7 out of 9. Ritchie commented that "Clean and deadly. Combats can be resolved between individual characters in 5 to 15 minutes. Simple, but not simple-minded."According to Shannon Appelcline, in his book Designers & Dragons, "The tactical combat of Melee worked because it was very playable.

White Dwarf # 4 Pegasus # 10 Melee at Steve. Melee. Metagaming. Austin. 1977 Jackson, Steve. Advanced Melee. Metagaming. Austin. 1980