HOME





Garrat Elections
The Garrat Elections were a carnival of mock elections in Wandsworth, Surrey (now part of London), England in the 18th century. The events were organized around 20 May and would see crowds of tens of thousands travelling from London to take part. The elections were held for at least fifty years before declining after the death of Mayor "Sir" Harry Dimsdale in 1796. ''Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,'' originally published in 1785 by Francis Grose, described the Garrat Election as: History In the 17th century, Garrat was a small hamlet in the parish of Wandsworth. Its residents had met in a conclave and elected a "commons" president to exert authority over a small common. They felt that the president should hold the office of "mayor" during the parliamentary period between general elections and should be re-elected with the new one. The minor political spectacle aroused some amusement and locals ended up parodying the affair in their mock election. The Garrat ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Henry Dimsdale (cropped)
Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainment * Henry (2011 film), ''Henry'' (2011 film), a Canadian short film * Henry (2015 film), ''Henry'' (2015 film), a virtual reality film * ''Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'', a 1986 American crime film * Henry (comics), ''Henry'' (comics), an American comic strip created in 1932 by Carl Anderson * "Henry", a song by New Riders of the Purple Sage Places Antarctica * Henry Bay, Wilkes Land Australia *Henry River (New South Wales) *Henry River (Western Australia) Canada * Henry Lake (Vancouver Island), British Columbia * Henry Lake (Halifax County), Nova Scotia * Henry Lake (District of Chester), Nova Scotia New Zealand * Lake Henry (New Zealand) * Henry River (New Zealand) United States * Henry, Illinois * Henry, Indiana * Henry, Nebras ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Town Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city or town council and at least some other arms of the local government. It also often functions as the office of the mayor (or other executive), if the relevant municipality has such an officer. In large cities, the local government is often administratively expansive, and the city hall may bear more resemblance to a municipal capitol building. By convention, until the middle of the 19th century, a single large open chamber (or "hall") formed an integral part of the building housing the council and such other organs of government as supported it. The hall may be used for council meetings and other significant events. This large chamber, the "town hall" (and its later variant "city hall") became synonymous with the whole building, and, synec ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


British Political Satire
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** British Isles, an island group ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** British Empire, a historical global colonial empire ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) * British Raj, colonial India under the British Empire * British Hong Kong, colonial H ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sir Richard Phillips
Sir Richard Phillips (13 December 1767 – 2 April 1840) was an English schoolteacher, author, publisher and vegetarianism activist. Life Phillips was born in London on 13 December 1767. Following some political difficulties in Leicester where he was a schoolteacher and bookseller (being imprisoned in 1792 for selling Thomas Paine's '' Rights of Man''), he returned to London, established premises in Paternoster Row, St. Paul's Churchyard, and founded '' The Monthly Magazine'' in 1796; its editor was Dr. John Aikin, and among its early contributors were fellow radicals William Godwin and Thomas Holcroft. Phillips built up a prominent fortune based on the speculative commission of newly revised textbooks and their publication, in a competitive market that had been freed by the House of Lords' decision in 1777 to strike down the perpetual copyright asserted by a small group of London booksellers to standard introductory works. His ''Juvenile Library'' published in 1800– ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Chambers Book Of Days
''Chambers Book of Days'' (''The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character'') was written by the Scottish author Robert Chambers and first published in 1864. A new version of ''Chambers Book of Days'' was published by Chambers Harrap in 2004. ''The Book of Days'' (1864) ''The Book of Days'' was Robert Chambers's last publication, and perhaps his most elaborate. It is a huge collection of short, largely factual pieces that today might be bracketed as "trivia", but very interesting trivia. The formula has been much repeated. It is supposed that his excessive labour in connection with this book hastened his death. The book was published in two large volumes, each over 840 pages long, and, for its day, was well-illustrated with engraved drawings linked to the articles. Its full title is ''The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Earlsfield
Earlsfield is an area within the London Borough of Wandsworth, London, England. It is a typical south London suburb and comprises mostly residential Victorian terraced houses with a high street of shops, bars, and restaurants between Garratt Lane, Allfarthing Lane, and Burntwood Lane. The population of Earlsfield at the 2011 Census was 15,500, increasing to 18,500 in 2022. History In medieval times, the area now known as Earlsfield was the northern part of the manor and hamlet of Garrat (also spelt Garratt, Garrett or Garret) in the parish of Wandsworth and notorious in the 18th century for the Garrat Elections, Garrat mock elections. By then the area was already industrialised with numerous mills along the River Wandle and in the early 19th century London's first railway, the horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway, ran along Garratt Lane. This was followed in 1838 by the opening of the London and South Western Railway which originally passed through without stopping. Later in the ce ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills AONB, Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs AONB, Kent Downs. The North Downs Way National Trail runs along the North Downs from Farnham to Dover. The highest point in the North Downs is Botley Hill, Surrey ( above sea level). The ''County Top'' of Kent is Betsom's Hill ( above sea level), which is less than 1 km from Westerham Heights, Bromley, the highest point in Greater London at an elevation of . Etymology 'Downs' is from Old English ''dun'', meaning, amongst other things, "hill". The word acquired the sense of "elevated rolling grassland" around the 14th century. The name contains "North" to distinguish them from a similar range of hills – the South Downs – which runs roughly parallel to them but s ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, more commonly known as the Derby and sometimes referred to as the Epsom Derby, is a Group races, Group 1 flat Horse racing, horse race in England open to three-year-old Colt (horse), colts and Filly, fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey on the first Saturday of June each year, over a distance of one mile, four furlongs and 10 yards (2,423 metres) or about 1½ miles. It was first run in 1780. It is Britain's richest flat horse race and the most prestigious of the five British Classic Races, Classics. It is sometimes referred to as the "Blue Riband" of the turf. The race serves as the middle leg of the historically significant Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing#English Triple Crowns, Triple Crown of British horse racing, preceded by the 2000 Guineas Stakes, 2000 Guineas and followed by the St Leger Stakes, St Leger, although the feat of winning all three is rarely attempted in the modern era due to changing priorities in racing and breed ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


King's Bench Prison
The King's Bench Prison was a prison in Southwark, south London, England, from the Middle Ages until it closed in 1880. It took its name from the King's Bench court of law in which cases of defamation, bankruptcy and other misdemeanours were heard; as such, the prison was often used as a debtor's prison until the practice was abolished in the 1860s. In 1842, it was renamed the Queen's Bench Prison, and became the Southwark Convict Prison in 1872. Origins The first prison was originally constructed from two houses and was situated in Angel Place, off Borough High Street, Southwark – as with other judicial buildings it was often targeted during uprisings, being burned in 1381 and 1450. During the reign of King Henry VIII, new prison buildings were constructed within an enclosing brick wall. This was eventually demolished in 1761. New building Its 1758 replacement was built at a cost of £7,800 on a site close to St George's Fields (south of Borough Road, close to its juncti ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mock Election In The King's Bench Prison
In July 1827, the inmates of the King's Bench Prison, a debtors' prison, in Borough, South London, devised an amusement to pass the time which gained the attention of the general public. It was proposed that they should elect a member to represent "Tenterden" (a slang name for the prison) in Parliament. Three candidates were put up, one of whom was Lieutenant Meredith, an eccentric naval officer. All the characteristics of a regular election were parodied. Addresses from the candidates to the 'worthy and independent electors' were printed and posted up around the prison; contending parties wrote broadsheets and sang songs attacking their opponents; there were processions with flags and music, to take the several candidates to visit the several "Collegians" (i. e., prisoners) in their rooms; speeches were made in the courtyards, full of grotesque humour; a pseudo "high-sheriff" and other "election officers" were chosen to oversee the proceedings "properly"; and the electors were in ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sir Jeffrey Dunstan
Jeffrey Dunstan (1759?–1797) was a second-hand wig seller in the West End of London who was the elected "mayor" of Garrat from 1785 to 1796, becoming a notable figure of his time. Life Dunstan was a foundling, and as such was reared in the parish workhouse of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a greengrocer, but ran away to Birmingham, where he worked in factories. After his return to London in 1776, his chief occupation was that of buying old wigs. His extraordinary appearance, and the droll way in which he clapped his hands to his mouth and called "old wigs", used always to attract a crowd of people after him in the streets. On the death of "Sir" John Harper in 1785, Dunstan was elected mayor of Garrat and began to be called "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan. The custom of the Garrat elections seems to have had its origin in a petty act of local injustice. Certain encroachments on Garrat Common, situated between Wandsworth and Tooting in Surrey, led ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Nepotism
Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In concept it is similar to cronyism. The term originated with the assignment of nephews, sons, or other relatives to important positions by Catholic popes and bishops. It has often been witnessed in Autocracy, autocracies, whereby Aristocracy, traditional aristocracies usually contested amongst themselves in order to obtain leverage, status, etc. Nepotism has been criticized since ancient history by philosophers including Aristotle, Thiruvalluvar, Valluvar, and Confucius, condemning it as both evil and unwise. Origins The term comes from Italian word ''nepotismo'',"Nepotism."
Dictionary.com. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]