1.
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
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Westminster School
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Westminster School is an English independent day and boarding school located within the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It has the highest Oxford and Cambridge university acceptance rates of any school or college in the world. With origins before the 12th century, the tradition of Westminster probably dates back as far as AD960. Boys are admitted to the Under School at age seven and to the school at age thirteen. The school has around 750 pupils, around a quarter are boarders, most of whom go home at weekends and it is one of the original seven public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. Charging up to £7,800 per term for day pupils and £11,264 for boarders in 2014/15, Westminster is the 13th most expensive HMC day school and 10th most expensive HMC boarding school in the UK. In 1540, Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in England, including that of the powerful Abbots of Westminster, the Royal College of St. Peter carried on with forty Kings Scholars financed from the royal purse. By this point Westminster School had certainly become a public school, during Mary Is brief reign the Abbey was reinstated as a Roman Catholic monastery, but the school continued. Elizabeth I refounded the School in 1560, with new statutes to select 40 Queens Scholars from boys who had attended the school for a year. Queen Elizabeth frequently visited her scholars, although she never signed the statutes nor endowed her scholarships, Elizabeth I appointed William Camden as headmaster, and he is the only layman known to have held the position until 1937. Regardless of politics, he thrashed Royalist and Puritan boys alike without fear or favour, Busby also took part in Oliver Cromwells funeral procession in 1658, when Robert Uvedale, a Westminster schoolboy, succeeded in snatching the Majesty Scutcheon draped on the coffin. Busby remained in office throughout the Civil War and the Commonwealth, when the school was governed by Parliamentary Commissioners, and well into the Restoration. In 1679, a group of scholars killed a bailiff, ostensibly in defence of the Abbeys traditional right of sanctuary, dr Busby obtained a royal pardon for his scholars from Charles II and added the cost to the school bills. Until the 19th century, the curriculum was made up of Latin and Greek. After the Public Schools Act 1868, in response to the Clarendon Commission on the financial and other malpractices at nine pre-eminent public schools, the school began to approach its modern form. It was legally separated from the Abbey, although the organisations remain close, there followed a scandalous public and parliamentary dispute lasting a further 25 years, to settle the transfer of the properties from the Canons of the Abbey to the School. School statutes have been made by Order in Council of Queen Elizabeth II, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford and the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge are ex officio members of the schools governing body. Westminster Under School was formed in 1943 in the school buildings in Westminster
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Dean Street
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Dean Street is a street in Soho, central London, running from Oxford Street south to Shaftesbury Avenue. In 1764 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then a boy, gave a recital at 21 Dean Street. Admiral Nelson stayed in Dean Street the day before setting sail for the Battle of Trafalgar and he spent the night drawing up his final battleplans, including the masterstroke of painting identifiable gold and black checks on the ships. Charles Dickens was also a regular on Dean Street when he was a young actor enthusiastically participating in amateur productions at Fanny Kellys Royalty Theatre at number 73-74. In 1845 he starred in an adaptation of Ben Jonsons Every Man in his Humour, Dickenss artistic contemporary George Cruikshank was also a resident of Dean Street and it was here that he drew the illustration for Dickenss early works. Cruikshank is perhaps best known as a cutting caricaturist with scant regard for his targets and he was once bribed £100 for his pledge not to caricature His Majesty in any immoral situation. He obliged and instead created a caricature of England which came to be known as John Bull. Furniture maker William Hean lived in Dean Street between 1827 and 1845, karl Marx lived at 28 Dean Street between 1851 and 1856, above what is now the Hart Brothers restaurant Quo Vadis. The Marxes shared their house in Dean Street with Italian teachers and their rooms were described by one visitor as One of the worst, therefore one of the cheapest, quarters of London. Three of their five children died while living here, all in infancy, marxs collaborator Friedrich Engels also lived in an apartment at 28 Dean Street. The French House in Dean Street is a house that was the unofficial headquarters of Charles de Gaulle. The street has a tradition in healthcare, over the years there have been various hospitals on the street, pioneering establishments for prevention and cure of diseases. The Royal Ear Hospital occupied number 10, a maternity hospital was also located here. Today there are two Sexual Health clinics on Dean Street,56 Dean Street and Dean Street Express at number 34. Dean Street has in recent years been a centre of the creative and advertising industries including film and video editing facilities, there have been many music and theatre venues on the street. New Romanticism, a fashion movement, began largely through the nightclub Billys in Dean Street in the late 1970s. The Groucho Club, a club frequented by people in the arts, is located here as is the Soho Theatre. On 10 July 2009 a fire out on Dean Street
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Vine Street, London
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Vine Street is a street in Westminster, London, running from Swallow Street, parallel to Regent Street and Piccadilly. It is now an end that was shortened from a longer road in the early 18th century owing to the building of Regent Street. From the 18th to 20th century, it was home to Vine Street Police Station, the Marquess of Queensberry was charged with libel against Oscar Wilde here in 1895. There was also a house in the 18th and early 19th century. The streets association with law has led to it being grouped with Bow Street, the street is approximately 70 feet long and is a dead end, running east and parallel to Piccadilly near Piccadilly Circus. It consists mainly of the facades of buildings facing onto other streets. It connects to Swallow Street at its end and an alleyway. At the eastern end, the Man in the Moon Passage provides foot access to Regent Street, the nearest tube station is Piccadilly Circus. The street is named after The Vine, an 18th-century public house and it was documented on ratebooks as Little Swallow Street in 1675. It was laid out around 1686 and originally ran further, along what is now the Man in the Moon Passage, john Rocques Map of London,1746 shows Vine Street extending from Piccadilly northeast to Warwick Street. In 1720, the properties on the street were a brewery. Vine Street was split into two following the construction of Regent Street between 1816 and 1819. The Man in the Moon Passage was created at this time, the northern section towards Warwick Street was renamed Great Vine Street, and then a branch of Warwick Street itself. It ceased to exist after the reconstruction of the Regent Street Quadrant in 1920, in 1853, Charles Moreign purchased several small houses at the end of Vine Street so they could be redeveloped into St Jamess Hall, Piccadilly. A rear entrance to the hall backed onto the street, the hall was demolished in 1905 and replaced by the Piccadilly Hotel, which also backs onto Vine Street. Vine Street has long associated with the police and law. Around 1751-2, a house was built at the western end of the street. It closed in 1836 following the reorganisation of the system around Westminster and was subsequently occupied by the lawyer Edward Gaffin
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George Lee, 3rd Earl of Lichfield
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George Henry Lee II, 3rd Earl of Lichfield PC was a British politician and peer. He was made a Privy Councillor and Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms in 1762, previously, he had served as Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire from 1740 until acceding to the peerage in 1743. He was born at Windsor Castle on 21 May 1718, the son of George Henry Lee I, 2nd Earl of Lichfield and his wife, from birth he was styled Viscount Quarendon. In the family tradition, he was educated at St Johns College, on 14 February 1732 he was made an M. A. of Oxford. He went on to earn his D. C. L. of Oxford on 25 August 1743,23 years later, on 19 August of the year 1760, Lichfield received the great position of High Steward of the University of Oxford. On 9 December 1760, he became Lord of the Bedchamber to King George III and he joined the Privy Council on 14 July 1762. He replaced George Huddesford as the Deputy Ranger of Hampton Court Park in July 1762, finally, on 23 September 1762, he assumed the role of Chancellor of the University of Oxford. P.349, The graceful dignity, the polite condescension, the ne quid nimis of the Chancellor were universally admired —1763. In brief, he earned his D. C. L. of Oxford degree on 27 September 1762, became a Vice-President of the Society of Arts, and a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire county on 17 October 1763. He married Diana or Dinah, daughter of Sir Thomas Frankland, they had no children, in 1744 Charlotte had married the 11th Viscount Dillon. Their son Charles Dillon, 12th Viscount Dillon inherited the estate of Ditchley, Ditchley remained the home of the Viscounts Dillon until 1934. The title was created for a time when Thomas Anson was created Earl of Lichfield in the 1831 coronation honors of William IV. Lee Baronets of Quarendon, Buckinghamshire, 1611–1776 Attribution Blakiston, Herbert Edward Douglas, london, Smith, Elder & Co. Leigh Rayments Peerage Pages
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Spelsbury
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Spelsbury is a village and civil parish about 1.5 miles north of Charlbury and about 4 miles southeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. The village is on a hill between the Coldron and Taston brooks overlooking the River Evenlode and the ancient Wychwood Forest to the south. The 2011 Census recorded the population as 305. The toponym is derived from the Old English for either spying place or the place of a person called Speol and it was first recorded in the Cartularium Saxonicum in AD1010 as Speoles byrig. In 1086 the Domesday Book recorded the village as Spelesberie, the Church of England parish church of All Saints was originally Norman with a central tower. In about 1200 transepts were added, but during the 13th century the Early English Gothic nave was built on the site of the Norman chancel, the nave is flanked by north and south aisles. The present west doorway in the tower and several of the windows in the aisles are early 14th century. > In 1706 the 1st Earl of Lichfield had the tower restored. In 1740 the 2nd Earl of Lichfield had the chancel rebuilt, in 1774 the 4th Earl of Lichfield had the nave and aisles remodelled. The chancel was again in 1851. Spelsbury parish includes the hamlets of Dean and Taston, in 2001 the Church of England Benefice of Ascott-under-Wychwood, Chadlington and Spelsbury merged with that of Enstone and Heythrop to form the Chase Benefice. Spelsbury has a group of almshouses built in 1688 by John Carry, Coldron Mill, south-west of the village, is on a site where a mill has existed for at least a thousand years. In the village a fountain in the shape of a shell commemorates Henry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon. The poet John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester lived and is buried in Spelsbury, the actor Sir Ben Kingsley lives in the village. Ben Kingsley interview, dark soul of the knight, fieldwalking at Spelsburydown and in the Chadlington Area
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Sir John Cust, 3rd Baronet
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See also John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow. Sir John Cust, 3rd Baronet PC was a British politician and he served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1761 to 1770. Cust was the son of Sir Richard Cust, 2nd Baronet and he was educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Cust was elected to the House of Commons for Grantham in 1743, in 1761 he was appointed Speaker of the House of Commons, which he remained until shortly before his death in 1770. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1762, Cust married Etheldred Payne, daughter of Thomas Payne, in 1743. He died in January 1770, aged 51, and was succeeded in his title by his son Brownlow Cust, who in 1776 was raised to the peerage as Baron Brownlow in recognition of his fathers services
8.
Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
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The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdoms lower chamber of Parliament. The office is held by John Bercow, who was initially elected on 22 June 2009. He was returned as an MP in the 2010 general election and was re-elected as Speaker when the House sat at the start of the new Parliament on 18 May 2010. He was again returned as an MP in the 2015 general election and was re-elected, unopposed, the Speaker presides over the Houses debates, determining which members may speak. The Speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, the Speaker does not take part in debate or vote. Aside from duties relating to presiding over the House, the Speaker also performs administrative and procedural functions, the Speaker has the right and obligation to reside in Speakers House at the Palace of Westminster. The office of Speaker is almost as old as Parliament itself, the earliest year for which a presiding officer has been identified is 1258, when Peter de Montfort presided over the Parliament held in Oxford. Early presiding officers were known by the title parlour or prolocutor, Edward III was frail and in seclusion, his prestigious eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, terminally ill. It was left to the son, a furious John of Gaunt. He arrested De la Mare and disgraced other leading critics, in the next, Bad Parliament, in 1377, a cowed Commons put forward Gaunts steward, Thomas Hungerford, as their spokesman in retracting their predecessors misdoings of the previous year. On 6 October 1399, Sir John Cheyne of Beckford was elected speaker, the powerful Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, is said to have voiced his fears of Cheynes reputation as a critic of the Church. Eight days later, Cheyne resigned on grounds of ill-health, although he remained in favour with the king, in such a situation, the influence of the speaker should not be underestimated. Sir Thomas More was the first speaker to go on to become Lord Chancellor, until the 17th century, members of the House of Commons often continued to view their Speaker as an agent of the Crown. As Parliament evolved, however, the Speakers position grew into one that involved more duties to the House than to the Crown, such was definitely the case by the time of the English Civil War. This change is said to be reflected by an incident in 1642. The development of Cabinet government under King William III in the late 17th century caused further change in the nature of the Speakership, Speakers were generally associated with the ministry, and often held other government offices. For example, Robert Harley served simultaneously as Speaker and as a Secretary of State between 1704 and 1705, the Speaker between 1728 and 1761, Arthur Onslow, reduced ties with the government, though the office did remain to a large degree political. The Speakership evolved into its modern form—in which the holder is an impartial and apolitical officer who does not belong to any party—only during the middle of the 19th century, over 150 individuals have served as Speaker of the House of Commons
9.
York Minster
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The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the church for the Diocese of York. It is run by a dean and chapter, under the Dean of York, the title minster is attributed to churches established in the Anglo-Saxon period as missionary teaching churches, and serves now as an honorific title. Services in the minster are sometimes regarded as on the High Church or Anglo-Catholic end of the Anglican continuum, the minster has a very wide Decorated Gothic nave and chapter house, a Perpendicular Gothic Quire and east end and Early English North and South transepts. The nave contains the West Window, constructed in 1338, and over the Lady Chapel in the east end is the Great East Window, in the north transept is the Five Sisters Window, each lancet being over 52 feet high. The south transept contains a window, while the West Window contains a heart-shaped design colloquially known as The Heart of Yorkshire. York has had a verifiable Christian presence from the 4th century, however, there is circumstantial evidence pointing to much earlier Christian involvement. Tradition speaks of 28 British bishops, one for each of the greater British cities, over whom presided the Archbishops of London, York and Caerleon-on-Usk. The first recorded church on the site was a structure built hurriedly in 627 to provide a place to baptise Edwin. Moves toward a substantial building began in the decade of the 630s. A stone structure was completed in 637 by Oswald and was dedicated to Saint Peter, the church soon fell into disrepair and was dilapidated by 670 when Saint Wilfrid ascended to the See of York. He repaired and renewed the structure, the attached school and library were established and by the 8th century were some of the most substantial in Northern Europe. In 741 the church was destroyed in a fire and it was rebuilt as a more impressive structure containing thirty altars. The church and the area then passed through the hands of numerous invaders. There was a series of Benedictine archbishops, including Saint Oswald of Worcester, Wulfstan and Ealdred, Ealdred died in 1069 and was buried in the church. The church was damaged in 1069 during William the Conquerors harrying of the North, the Danes destroyed the church in 1075, but it was again rebuilt from 1080. Built in the Norman style, it was 111 m long and rendered in white, the new structure was damaged by fire in 1137 but was soon repaired. The choir and crypt were remodelled in 1154, and a new chapel was built, the Gothic style in cathedrals had arrived in the mid 12th century
