1.
George Henry Harlow
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George Henry Harlow, was a highly regarded English portrait painter. Harlow was sent when quite young to Dr. Barrows classical school in Soho Square and he was for a short time at Westminster School, but having shown a predilection for painting, he was placed under Henry De Cort, the landscape-painter. He next worked under Samuel Drummond, A. R. A, the portrait-painter, but after about a year entered the studio of Sir Thomas Lawrence. Harlow paid Lawrence handsomely for his admission and the right to copy, Harlow decided to devote himself to painting, and refused an offer of a writership in the East India trade made by his fathers friends. He spent about eighteen months in Lawrences studio, copying his pictures, Harlow henceforth pursued an original system of art education. He inveighed strongly against all rules and principles. Young, headstrong, and impatient of restraint, with a person and amiable disposition. His foibles led his friends to nickname him Clarissa Harlowe and he worked, however, with industry and enthusiasm in his art. Though openly opposed to the Royal Academy, he was a candidate for academician and he exhibited for the first time at the Academy in 1804, showing a portrait of Dr. Thornton. In later years he exhibited many other portraits and his practice in this line was extensive. His portraits are well conceived, and, though much in the manner and his portraits of ladies were always graceful and pleasing. He was less successful, owing to his artistic education, in historical painting. His first exhibited pictures were Queen Elizabeth striking the Earl of Essex, at the Royal Academy,1807. In 1815 he painted Hubert and Prince Arthur for William Leader, in 1814 he painted a set of portraits of the actor Charles Mathews in various characters, which attracted general attention. It was engraved by W. Greatbach for Yates Life of Mathews, early in his career Harlow had made sketches of performers in the theatre, notably of the actress Sarah Siddons, who retired in 1812. A commission from the music teacher Thomas Welsh to paint Siddons as Queen Katharine in Shakespeares Henry VIII and this was begun from memory, but subsequently the actress, at Welshs request, gave the painter a sitting. While painting the portrait, Harlow decided to expand the picture into the Trial Scene from the play, introducing portraits of the various members of the Kemble family. Welsh, though not consulted by Harlow concerning this change of plan, the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817, and excited great public interest
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
4.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
5.
Georgian era
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private
6.
Old Jewry
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Old Jewry is a one-way street in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It is located within Coleman Street ward and links Poultry to Gresham Street, the street now contains mainly offices for financial companies. The nearest London Underground station is Bank and the closest mainline station is Cannon Street. William the Conqueror encouraged Jews to come to England soon after the Norman Conquest, some settled in cities throughout his new domain, according to Reverend Moses Margoliouth, Old Jewry was a ghetto. Ghettos, areas of a city mainly or exclusively populated by Jews, were common across Europe, in 2001, archaeologists discovered a mikveh near to Old Jewry, on the corner of Gresham Street and Milk Street, under what is now the State Bank of India. It would have fallen into disuse after 1290, when the Jews were expelled from England, on the west side of Old Jewry is St Olave Old Jewry, only the tower of this church survives. When it was destroyed in 1887, a Roman pavement and vases were discovered, jewen Street, not far away, off Aldersgate, still existed in 1722. According to Ephraim Chambers Cyclopaedia, this was the only permitted burial ground for Jews, also nearby is St Lawrence Jewry, a Church of England guild church on Gresham Street, next to the Guildhall. Thomas Rowlandson was born on Old Jewry in 1756, there was a Dissenting chapel in Old Jewry in the 1700s. Richard Price, minister of Newington Green Chapel, was also the afternoon preacher here from 1763. Joseph Fawcett spoke there from 1785, when he began a series of Sunday evening lectures which drew the largest and most genteel London audience that ever assembled in a place of worship. Bank junction Cheapside Ironmonger Lane Lothbury Medieval Old Jewry Jewish guide to Britain Mikveh Mikveh Roman pavement Chambers Encyclopedia Richard Price
7.
City of London
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The City of London is a city and county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London, however, the City of London is not a London borough. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City and is colloquially known as the Square Mile. Both of these terms are often used as metonyms for the United Kingdoms trading and financial services industries. The name London is now used for a far wider area than just the City. London most often denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 London boroughs and this wider usage of London is documented as far back as 1888, when the County of London was created. The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council and it is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the current Lord Mayor, as of November 2016, is Andrew Parmley. The City is a business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the primary business centre. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008, the insurance industry is focused around the eastern side of the City, around Lloyds building. A secondary financial district exists outside of the City, at Canary Wharf,2.5 miles to the east, the City has a resident population of about 7,000 but over 300,000 people commute to and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. It used to be held that Londinium was first established by merchants as a trading port on the tidal Thames in around 47 AD. However, this date is only supposition, many historians now believe London was founded some time before the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. They base this notion on evidence provided by both archaeology and Welsh literary legend, archaeologists have claimed that as much as half of the best British Iron Age art and metalwork discovered in Britain has been found in the London area. One of the most prominent examples is the famously horned Waterloo Helmet dredged from the Thames in the early 1860s and now exhibited at the British Museum. Also, according to an ancient Welsh legend, a king named Lud son of Heli substantially enlarged and improved a pre-existing settlement at London which afterwards came to be renamed after him, the same tradition relates how this Lud son of Heli was later buried at Ludgate
8.
St Mary Colechurch
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St Mary Colechurch was a parish church in the City of London destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and not rebuilt. The church was situated at the junction of Poultry and the end of Old Jewry. Named after its first benefactor, it was a prosperous parish able to support a grammar school, the Great Fire of London of 1666 destroyed 86 of the 97 parish churches in the City of London. By 1670 a Rebuilding Act had been passed and a set up under of Sir Christopher Wren to plan the new parishes. Fifty-one were chosen, but St Mary Colechurch was one of the minority not to be rebuilt, C. W. Pearce notes that the last traces of any building vanished in 1839 although a Parish Boundary Mark inside the Mercers’ Hall still exists. A plaque commemorates the church on the southwest corner of Old Jewry, the site is currently occupied by the Alliance & Leicester at 82 Cheapside
9.
Richmond, North Yorkshire
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Richmond is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England and the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Richmond is the most duplicated UK placename, with 57 occurrences worldwide. The Rough Guide describes the town as an absolute gem, betty James wrote that without any doubt Richmond is the most romantic place in the whole of the North East. Richmond was named UK town of the year in 2009, the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, built in 1788, is the UKs most complete 18th century theatre. The town of Richemont in Normandy was the origin of the placename Richmond, Richmond in North Yorkshire was the eponymous honour of the Earls of Richmond, a dignity normally also held by the Duke of Brittany from 1136 to 1399. Richmond was founded in 1071 by the Breton Alan Rufus, on lands granted to him by William the Conqueror, Richmond Castle, completed in 1086, had a keep and walls encompassing the area now known as the Market Place. Richmond was part of the lands of the earldom of Richmond, when John V, Duke of Brittany died in 1399 Henry IV took possession. In 1453, the earldom was conferred on Edmund Tudor, and was merged with the crown when Edmunds son Henry became king, as Henry VII in 1485. During the English Civil War, the Covenanter Army led by David Leslie, Lord Newark, took over the castle and conflict between local Catholics and Scottish Presbyterians ensued. The prosperity of the town and centre of the Swaledale wool industry greatly increased in the late 17th and 18th centuries with the burgeoning lead mining industry in nearby Arkengarthdale. It is from this period that the towns Georgian architecture originates, one of Europes first gas works was built in the town in 1830. A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of Richmond Barracks in 1877, Richmond Castle in the town centre overlooks the River Swale and is a major tourist attraction. Scollands Hall is the gatehouse and was staffed by the Lords of Bedale, such as Bryan FitzAlan, Lord FitzAlan, other staff residences were Constable Burton and Thornton Steward. Also, Richmond had an extended Wensleydale castlery initially consisting of Middleham Castle, Ravensworth, the Conyers, Wyville, Gascoigne, Stapleton and Lovell families were all notable gentry. The cobbled market place is one of the largest in England, the Green Howards Regimental Museum is in the old Trinity Church in the centre of the towns market place, the town is also home to the Richmondshire Museum. Swale House on Frenchgate, built around 1750, was home to the headmaster and students of the grammar school. For many years, it was the headquarters of Richmondshire District Council, before being closed, the Georgian Theatre Royal, founded in 1788 by the actor Samuel Butler, is off the market place. A decline in the fortunes of theatre led to its closure in 1848, in 1963 the theatre was restored and reopened, with a theatre museum added in 1979
10.
Soho Square
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Soho Square is a square in Soho, London, England, with a park and garden area at its centre that dates back to 1681. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, whose statue stands in the square, at the centre of the garden, there is a distinctive half-timbered gardeners hut. During the summer, Soho Square hosts open-air free concerts, built in the late 1670s, Soho Square was in its early years one of the most fashionable places to live in London. It was originally called Kings Square, for King Charles II, a statue of Charles II was carved by Danish sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber in 1681 and placed at the centre of the Square. By the early 19th century, the statue was described as being in a most wretched mutilated state, and the inscriptions on the base of the pedestal quite illegible. Goodall placed the statue on an island in his lake at Grims Dyke, where it remained when dramatist W. S. Gilbert purchased the property in 1890, and there it stayed after Gilberts death in 1911. In her will, Lady Gilbert directed that the statue be returned, william Thomas Beckford was born on 29 September 1760 in his familys London home at 22 Soho Square. In the 1770s, the naturalist Joseph Banks who had circumvented the globe with James Cook, in 1778, Banks was elected president of the Royal Society and his home became a kind of scientific salon hosting scientists visiting from around the world. His library and herbarium containing many plants gathered during his travels were open to the general public, between 1778 and 1801 the Square was home to the infamous White House brothel at the Manor House,21 Soho Square. In 1862 the charity House of St Barnabas moved around the corner from Rose Street to 1 Greek Street where it resides today. Wilfrid Voynich had his antiquarian bookshop at no.1 Soho Square from 1902, the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis was at no.36 from about 1947. Fauconberg House was on the side of the square until its demolition in 1924. Two of the houses, nos.10 and 15. At nos.8 and 9 is the French Protestant Church of London, number 22 was home to British Movietone and Kay Film Laboratories, having been re-built to its current form between 1913 and 1914. For almost forty years, beginning in 1955, Soho Square housed the headquarters of animator Richard Williams. In the 1990s Sony Music had an office here and their record label Sony Soho Square has since been renamed S2 Records. The Football Association was headquartered at No 25 from October 2000 until 2009, streets running off the square, counted clockwise from the north, are Soho Street, Sutton Row, Greek Street, Batemans Buildings, Frith Street and Carlisle Street. In the book A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Soho Square is where Lucie and her father, Doctor Manette, in the song Why Cant The English
11.
Edmund Burke
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Burke criticized British treatment of the American colonies, including through its taxation policies. Burke is remembered for his support for Catholic emancipation, the impeachment of Warren Hastings from the East India Company, in the nineteenth century Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals. Subsequently, in the century, he became widely regarded as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism. Burke was born in Dublin, Ireland, Burke adhered to his fathers faith and remained a practising Anglican throughout his life, unlike his sister Juliana who was brought up as and remained a Roman Catholic. Although never denying his Irishness, Burke often described himself as an Englishman, according to the historian J. C. D. Clark, this was in an age before Celtic nationalism sought to make Irishness and Englishness incompatible. As a child he spent time away from the unhealthy air of Dublin with his mothers family in the Blackwater Valley in County Cork. He received his education at a Quaker school in Ballitore, County Kildare, some 67 kilometres from Dublin. He remained in correspondence with his schoolmate from there, Mary Leadbeater, in 1744, Burke started at Trinity College Dublin, a Protestant establishment, which up until 1793, did not permit Catholics to take degrees. The minutes of the meetings of Burkes Club remain in the collection of the Historical Society, Burke graduated from Trinity in 1748. Burkes father wanted him to read Law, and with this in mind he went to London in 1750, after eschewing the Law, he pursued a livelihood through writing. The late Lord Bolingbrokes Letters on the Study and Use of History was published in 1752 and this provoked Burke into writing his first published work, A Vindication of Natural Society, A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind, appearing in Spring 1756. Burke imitated Bolingbrokes style and ideas in a reductio ad absurdum of his arguments for atheistic rationalism, Burke claimed that Bolingbrokes arguments against revealed religion could apply to all social and civil institutions as well. Lord Chesterfield and Bishop Warburton initially thought that the work was genuinely by Bolingbroke rather than a satire, all the reviews of the work were positive, with critics especially appreciative of Burkes quality of writing. Some reviewers failed to notice the ironic nature of the book, a minority of scholars have taken the position that, in fact, Burke did write the Vindication in earnest, later disowning it only for political reasons. It was his only purely philosophical work, and when asked by Sir Joshua Reynolds and French Laurence to expand it thirty years later and it was to be submitted for publication by Christmas 1758. G. M. Young did not value Burkes history and claimed that it was demonstrably a translation from the French. Lord Acton, on commenting on the story that Burke stopped his history because David Hume published his, Burke remained the chief editor of the publication until at least 1789 and there is no evidence that any other writer contributed to it before 1766. On 12 March 1757, Burke married Jane Mary Nugent, daughter of Dr Christopher Nugent and their son Richard was born on 9 February 1758, an elder son, Christopher, died in infancy
12.
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
13.
Caricature
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A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or through other artistic drawings. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics, Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines. The term is derived from the Italian caricare—to charge or load, an early definition occurs in the English doctor Thomas Brownes Christian Morals, published posthumously in 1716. Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, with the footnote, When Mens faces are drawn with resemblance to some other Animals, the Italians call it, to be drawn in Caricatura Thus, the word caricature essentially means a loaded portrait. Some of the earliest caricatures are found in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the point was to offer an impression of the original which was more striking than a portrait. Caricature took a road to its first successes in the aristocratic circles of France and Italy. These caricatures were the work of Brig. -Gen, george Townshend whose caricatures of British General James Wolfe, depicted as Deformed and crass and hideous, were drawn to amuse fellow officers. Elsewhere, two great practitioners of the art of caricature in 18th-century Britain were Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray, Rowlandson was more of an artist and his work took its inspiration mostly from the public at large. Gillray was more concerned with the vicious visual satirisation of political life and they were, however, great friends and caroused together in the pubs of London. In a lecture titled The History and Art of Caricature, the British caricaturist Ted Harrison said that the caricaturist can choose to either mock or wound the subject with an effective caricature. Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and amusement – in which case gentle mockery is in order – or the art can be employed to make a social or political point. A caricaturist draws on the characteristics of the subject, the acquired characteristics. Sir Max Beerbohm, created and published caricatures of the men of his own time. His style of single-figure caricatures in formalized groupings was established by 1896 and his published works include Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen, The Poets Corner, and Rossetti and His Circle. He published widely in magazines of the time, and his works were exhibited regularly in London at the Carfax Gallery. George Cruikshank created political prints that attacked the family and leading politicians. He went on to create caricatures of British life for popular publications such as The Comic Almanack
14.
Somerset House
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Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The building, originally the site of a Tudor palace, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776, the East Wing forms part of the adjacent Strand campus of Kings College London. In the sixteenth century, the Strand, the bank of the Thames between the City of London and the Palace of Westminster was a favoured site for the mansions of the nobility. In 1539 Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, obtained a grant of land at Chester Place, outside Temple Bar, when his nephew the boy-king Edward VI came to the throne in 1547, Seymour became Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector. Pauls Cathedral which were demolished partly at his behest as part of the ongoing Dissolution of the Monasteries and it was a two storey house built around a quadrangle with a gateway rising to three stories and was one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture in England. It is not known who designed the building, before it was finished, however, Somerset was overthrown, attainted by Parliament and in 1552 was executed on Tower Hill. Somerset Place then came into the possession of the Crown and his royal nephews half-sister the future Queen Elizabeth I lived there during the reign of her half-sister Queen Mary I. The process of completion and improvement was slow and costly, as late as 1598 Stow refers to it as yet unfinished. In the 17th century, the house was used as a residence by queens consort, during the reign of King James I, the building became the London residence of his wife, Anne of Denmark, and was renamed Denmark House. She commissioned a number of additions and improvements, some to designs by Inigo Jones. In particular, during the period between 1630 and 1635 he built a Chapel where Henrietta Maria of France, wife of King Charles I and this was in the care of the Capuchin Order and was on a site to the south-west of the Great Court. A small cemetery was attached and some of the tombstones are still to be built into one of the walls of a passage under the present quadrangle. Royal occupation of Somerset House was interrupted by the English Civil War and they failed to find a buyer, though a sale of the contents realised the very considerable sum of £118,000. Use was still found for it however, part of it served as an Army headquarters, General Fairfax being given official quarters there, lodgings were also provided for certain other Parliamentary notables. It was in Somerset House that Oliver Cromwells body lay in state after his death in 1658, however she returned to France in 1665 before it was finished. It was then used as a residence by Catherine of Braganza. During her time it received a certain notoriety as being, in the popular mind, Somerset House was refurbished by Sir Christopher Wren in 1685. After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, Somerset House entered on a period of decline, being used for grace
15.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
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Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was a French sculptor. Pigalle was born in Paris, the child of a carpenter. Although he failed to obtain the Prix de Rome, after a struggle he entered the Académie Royale. Pigalle taught the sculptor Louis-Philippe Mouchy, who married his niece, and his name is most commonly known today because of the Pigalle red-light district in Paris, located around the square of the same name. Pigalle died in Paris on 20 August 1785, media related to Jean-Baptiste Pigalle at Wikimedia Commons Virtual Gallery Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website
17.
James Gillray
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James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810. Gillray has been called the father of the cartoon, with his works satirizing George III, prime ministers. He was born in Chelsea, London and his father, a native of Lanark, had served as a soldier, losing an arm at the Battle of Fontenoy, and was admitted, first as an inmate, and afterwards as an outdoor pensioner, at Chelsea Hospital. Gillray commenced life by learning letter-engraving, at which he became adept. This employment, however, proved irksome to James, so he wandered about for a time with a company of strolling players and his caricatures are almost all in etching, some also with aquatint, and a few using stipple technique. None can correctly be described as engravings, although this term is loosely used to describe them. Hogarths works were the delight and study of his early years, paddy on Horseback, which appeared in 1779, is the first caricature which is certainly his. Two caricatures on Admiral Rodneys naval victory at the Battle of the Saintes, Gillray lived with Miss Humphrey during the entire period of his fame. It is believed that he several times thought of marrying her, and that on one occasion the pair were on their way to the church and we live very comfortably together, we had better let well alone. There is no evidence, however, to support the stories which scandalmongers invented about their relations, Gillrays plates were exposed in Humphreys shop window, where eager crowds examined them. One of his prints, Very Slippy-Weather, shows Miss Humphreys shop in St. Jamess Street in the background. Gillrays eyesight began to fail in 1806 and he began wearing spectacles but they were unsatisfactory. Unable to work to his previous standards, James Gillray became depressed and started drinking heavily. He produced his last print in September 1809, as a result of his heavy drinking Gillray suffered from gout throughout his later life. His last work, from a design by Bunbury, is entitled Interior of a Barbers Shop in Assize Time, while he was engaged on it he became mad, although he had occasional intervals of sanity, which he employed on his last work. The approach of madness may have been hastened by his intemperate habits, in July 1811 Gillray attempted to kill himself by throwing himself out of an attic window above Humphreys shop in St Jamess Street. Gillray lapsed into insanity and was looked after by Hannah Humphrey until his death on 1 June 1815 in London, he was buried in St Jamess churchyard, Piccadilly. A number of his most trenchant satires are directed against George III, during the French Revolution, Gillray took a conservative stance, and he issued caricature after caricature ridiculing the French and Napoleon, and glorifying John Bull
18.
Henry Bunbury (caricaturist)
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For his son, see Sir Henry Bunbury, 7th Baronet Henry William Bunbury was an English caricaturist. The second son of Sir William Bunbury, 5th Baronet, of Mildenhall, Suffolk and he was educated at Westminster School and St Catharines College, Cambridge, and soon showed a talent for drawing, especially for humorous subjects. His son Henry succeeded to the baronetcy and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Bunbury, Henry William. National Portrait Gallery, Henry William Bunbury Original Antique Prints and Engravings by, Henry William Bunbury Bunbury prints within the collection of St. Edmundsbury Heritage Service
19.
Vauxhall
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Vauxhall is a mixed commercial and residential district of southwest London in the London Borough of Lambeth. Vauxhall formed part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created, Vauxhall is 2.1 km south of Charing Cross and 1.5 km southwest of the actual centre of London at Frazier st near Lambeth North tube station. The area only became known by this name when the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens opened as a public attraction. Initially most visitors would have approached by river, but crowds of Londoners of all came to know the area after the construction of Westminster Bridge in the 1740s. There are competing theories as to why the Russian word for a railway station is вокзал. This was further embellished into a story that the Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, visiting London in 1844, was taken to see the trains at Vauxhall and made the same mistake. The locality of the L&SWRs original railway terminus, Nine Elms Station, was shown boldly and simply as Vauxhall in the 1841 Bradshaw timetable, in 1838 a music and entertainment pavilion was constructed at the railway terminus. This pavilion was called the Vokzal in homage to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London, the name soon came to be applied to the station itself, which was the gateway that most visitors used to enter the gardens. It later came to any substantial railway station building. Archdeacon William Coxe describes the place as a sort of Vauxhall in that year, there is no mention of Vauxhall in the 1086 Domesday Book. The area originally formed part of the extensive Manor of South Lambeth, falkes de Breauté acquired it in 1216 when he married Margaret, widow of Baldwin de Redvers, de Breautés lands reverted to the de Redvers family after his death in 1226. In 1293 South Lambeth Manor and the Manor of la Sale Faukes passed, probably by trickery, in 1317 King Edward II granted the manor of Vauxhall, Surrey, to Sir Roger dAmory for his good services at the Battle of Bannockburn. From various accounts, three local roads – the South Lambeth Road, Clapham Road and Wandsworth Road – were ancient and well-known routes to and from London. The land was flat and parts were marshy and poorly drained by ditches, and only started to be developed with the draining of Lambeth Marsh in the mid-18th century, prior to this it provided market garden produce for the nearby City of London. Vauxhall Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge Road were opened in 1816, by 1860 the village had been subsumed by the town of Lambeth. Many of Vauxhalls streets were destroyed during the construction of the railway to Waterloo station, many Vauxhall residents live in social housing. Vauxhall is an ethnically diverse area, with approximately 40% of residents originating from a non-white ethnic group. There is a significant Portuguese community, some with a connection to Madeira, many Portuguese restaurants and bars are located in South Lambeth Road, there is also a significant Muslim community, with almost 6% of residents declaring themselves as Muslim in the 2001 census
20.
Rudolph Ackermann
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Rudolph Ackermann was an Anglo-German bookseller, inventor, lithographer, publisher and businessman. He attended the Latin school in Stollberg, but his wish to study at the university was made impossible by lack of financial means, and he therefore became a saddler like his father. He worked as a saddler and coach-builder in different German cities, moved from Dresden to Basel and Paris and he established himself in Long Acre, the centre of coach-making in London and close to the market at Covent Garden. After this he designed The Royal Sailor, an 8-wheel omnibus that ran between Charing Cross, Greenwich and Woolwich, Ackermann then moved to Little Russell Street where he published Imitations of Drawings of Fashionable Carriages in order to promote his coach-making. In 1795 he established a print-shop and drawing-school at 96 Strand, Ackermann set up a lithographic press and began a trade in prints. He later began to manufacture colours and thick carton paper for landscape, within three years the premises had become too small and he moved to 101 Strand, in his own words four doors nearer to Somerset House, the seat of the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1809 he applied his press to the illustration of his Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, which appeared monthly until 1829, Thomas Rowlandson and other distinguished artists were regular contributors. Repository documented the changing classicising fashions in dress and furniture of the Regency, in 1801 he patented a method for rendering paper and cloth waterproof and erected a factory in Chelsea to make it. He was one of the first to illuminate his own premises with gas, indeed, the introduction of lighting by gas owed much to him. After the Battle of Leipzig, Ackermann collected nearly a quarter of a million pounds sterling for the German casualties and he also patented the Ackermann steering geometry. He was buried at St. Clement Danes in The Strand, Vol VI1938, Vol VII,1942 VOL VIII1947, VOL IX1949 Rudolph Ackermann, Microcosm of London, Illustrated by Augustus Charles Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson. 1904 reprint + Illustrations Martin Hardie, English Coloured Books, London, Methuen & Co and New York, chapter VI, Rudolph Ackermann and his Associates. Hyperlinks allow the volumes to be examined by author, engraver, etc. and include references to other works submitted to similar 19th century literary journals
21.
William Combe
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William Combe was a British miscellaneous writer. His early life was that of an adventurer, his later was passed chiefly within the rules of the Kings Bench Prison. He is chiefly remembered as the author of The Three Tours of Doctor Syntax, a poem, illustrated by artist Thomas Rowlandsons color plates. Combe also wrote a series of letters, supposed to have been written by the second. Of a similar kind were his letters between Swift and Stella and he also wrote the letterpress for various illustrated books, and was a general hack. Combes father Robert Combes was a rich London ironmonger who died in 1756, his mother and he was educated at Eton College, but was withdrawn from the school by William Alexander, his guardian, on his fathers death, Alexander died in 1762. He inherited from both his father and guardian, aspired to the status of gentleman, and changed his name to Combe. He spent his fortune, travelled and was nicknamed Count Combe, and in the period 1769–1773 was low in funds, existing in France, Wales, in 1773 Robert Berkeley employed Combe to edit Thomas Falkners Description of Patagonia. Combe then settled to work as a writer and book editor, in 1776 Combe made his first success in London with The Diaboliad, a satire full of bitter personal attacks. Four years later, in 1780, debts brought him into the Kings Bench Prison, in 1790 and 91, the six volumes of a Devil on Two Sticks in England won for Combe the title of the English le Sage. In 1794 he ghost-wrote the Aeneas Anderson memoir of the Lord Macartney embassy to Peking, A Narrative of the British Embassy to China, in the Years 1792,1793, and 1794. In 1794–1796 he wrote the text for Boydells History of the River Thames and it satirised William Gilpin, who toured Britain to describe his theory of the Picturesque. It was collected in form in 1812, and was followed by two similar Tours. in search of Consolation and. in search of a Wife, the first Mrs Syntax having died at the end of the first Tour. The second Tour was collected as an 1820 book, and the tour as an 1821 book. Some reprint editions over the several decades rendered Rowlandsons color plates in black. Combe died in London on 19 June 1823, also, the diabo-lady, or, a match in hell Letters supposed to have been written by Yorick and Eliza. 2 vols Letters of the Late Lord Lyttleton,2 vols – Original letters of the late Reverend Mr. Laurence Sterne, Never Before Published. The devil upon two sticks in England, being a continuation of Le diable boiteux of Le Sage,6 vols An History of the River Thames
22.
Danse Macabre
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Dance of Death, also called Danse Macabre, is an artistic genre of late-medieval allegory on the universality of death, no matter ones station in life, the Dance of Death unites all. The Danse Macabre consists of the dead or personified Death summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and labourer. They were produced as mementos mori, to people of the fragility of their lives. Its origins are postulated from illustrated sermon texts, the earliest recorded visual scheme was a now-lost mural in the Saints Innocents Cemetery in Paris dating from 1424 to 1425, the earliest recorded visual example is from the cemetery of the Church of the Holy Innocents in Paris. Marija na Škrilinama in the Istrian town of Beram, painted by Vincent of Kastav, there was also a Dance of Death painted in the 1540s on the walls of the cloister of St Pauls Cathedral, London with texts by John Lydgate, which was destroyed in 1549. The deathly horrors of the 14th century—such as recurring famines, the Hundred Years War in France, and, most of all, the Black Death—were culturally assimilated throughout Europe. Short verse dialogues between Death and each of its victims, which could have performed as plays, can be found in the direct aftermath of the Black Death in Germany. The French term danse macabre may derive from the Latin Chorea Machabæorum, in 2 Maccabees, a deuterocanonical book of the Bible, the grim martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons is described, and was a well-known mediaeval subject. An alternative explanation is that the term entered France via Spain, both the dialogues and the evolving paintings were ostensive penitential lessons that even illiterate people could understand. Numerous mural versions of that legend from the 13th century onwards have survived, since they showed pictorial sequences of men and corpses covered with shrouds, those paintings are sometimes regarded as cultural precursors of the new genre. A danse macabre painting may show a round dance headed by Death or a chain of alternating dead, from the highest ranks of the mediaeval hierarchy descending to its lowest, each mortals hand is taken by a skeleton or an extremely decayed body. The apparent class distinction in almost all of these paintings is completely neutralized by Death as the ultimate equalizer, the Totentanz of Metnitz, for example, shows how a pope crowned with his mitre is being led into Hell by the dancing Death. Usually, a dialogue is attached to each victim, in which Death is summoning him to dance. Who the beggar or the Emperor, ob arm, ob reich, im Tode gleich. Whether rich or poor, equal in death, the famous designs by Hans Holbein the Younger for his Dance of Death series were drawn in 1526 while he was in Basel. They were cut in wood by the accomplished Formschneider Hans Lützelburger and these woodcuts soon appeared in proofs with titles in German. The first book edition, containing forty-one woodcuts, was published at Lyons by the Treschsel brothers in 1538, ten further designs were added in later editions. The Dance of Death refashions the late-medieval allegory of the danse macabre as a reformist satire, most importantly, it was The pictures and the Bible quotations above them were the main attractions
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rowlandson, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 787.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 