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Mary Howitt
Mary Howitt (12 March 1799-30 January 1888) was an English poet, the author of the famous poem '' The Spider and the Fly''. She translated several tales by Hans Christian Andersen. Some of her works were written in conjunction with her husband, William Howitt. Many, in verse and prose, were intended for young people. Background and early life Mary Botham, daughter of Samuel Botham and Ann, was born at Coleford, Gloucestershire, where her parents lived temporarily, while her father, a prosperous Quaker surveyor and former farmer of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, looked after some mining property. In 1796, aged 38, Samuel had married 32-year-old Ann, daughter of a Shrewsbury ribbon-weaver. They had four children: Anna, Mary, Emma and Charles. Their Queen Anne house is now called Howitt Place. Mary Botham was taught at home, read widely and began writing verse at a very early age. Marriage and writing On 16 April 1821 she married William Howitt and began a career of joint authorship wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eyam
Eyam () is an English village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales that lies within the Peak District National Park. There is evidence of early occupation by Ancient Britons on the surrounding moors and lead was mined in the area by the Romans. A settlement was founded on the present site by Anglo-Saxons, when mining was continued and other industries later developed. However, Eyam’s main claim to fame is the story of how the village chose to go into isolation so as to prevent infection spreading after bubonic plague was discovered there in 1665. In the later 20th century, the village's sources of livelihood largely disappeared. The local economy now relies on the tourist trade, with Eyam being promoted as "the plague village". Although the story has been kept alive by a growing number of literary works since the early 19th century, its truth has been questioned. Governance Eyam has its own Parish Council with a wide range of powers at community level. At district lev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Gillies
Mary Gillies (16 June 1800 – 20 July 1870) was a British children's author, and sister of the artist Margaret Gillies. Early life Mary Gillies was born in London on 16 June 1800, the eldest daughter of William Gillies, a Scottish merchant in Throgmorton Street, London, and his wife Charlotte Hester Bonnor, daughter of Thomas Bonnor. William's business ran into difficulties and after Charlotte's death in 1811, Mary and her younger sister Margaret (1803–1887), were placed under the care of their uncle and aunt, the prominent Unitarians Lord and Lady Gillies, who educated them and introduced them into Edinburgh society. During their time in Edinburgh the two girls were introduced to Thomas Southwood Smith, the powerful new preacher to the Unitarian congregation at Skinners' Hall, Canongate, who was to play a large part in their later lives. Career In the early 1820s Mary and her sister returned to London to live with their father. Margaret pursued a successful caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Gillies
Margaret Gillies (7 August 1803 – 20 July 1887) was a London-born Scottish miniaturist and watercolourist. Biography Gillies was the second daughter of William Gillies, a Scottish merchant in Throgmorton Street, London, and his wife Charlotte Hester Bonnor (died 1811), daughter of Thomas Bonnor. Having lost their mother when Margaret was eight years old, and their father having met with business reverses, she and her older sister, Mary (1800–1870), were placed under the care of their uncle, Adam Gillies, Lord Gillies. They were educated by him, and then introduced to Edinburgh society. Before she was twenty, Gillies decided to earn her own living, and returned with her sister to her father's home in London. Mary Gillies became an author, while Margaret took the direction of a professional artist. She received lessons in miniature-painting from Frederick Cruikshank, and gained a reputation for it. Cruikshank's style was based on that of Andrew Robertson. In the early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Southwood Smith
Thomas Southwood Smith (17881861) was an English physician and sanitary reformer. Early life Smith was born at Martock, Somerset, into a strict Baptist family, his parents being William Smith and Caroline Southwood. In 1802 he won a scholarship to the Bristol Baptist College to train as a minister, but in 1807 funds were abruptly withdrawn, on the grounds that he was 'entertaining opinions widely different from us on most of the doctrines we consider to be essential to Evangelical Religion'. At 19 years old he was already showing the courage and independence of mind that were to characterise his life, however it led to a break with his parents who never spoke to him again. Over the following four years Smith turned to Unitarianism, influenced by William Blake, a minister at Crewkerne, Somerset: Blake put him in touch with John Prior Estlin at Lewin's Mead, Bristol. Another friend, and Unitarian convert from Baptism who became a physician, was Benjamin Spencer. These associati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Highgate
Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross. Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisations, the ''Highgate Society'' and the ''Highgate Neighbourhood Forum'' to protect and enhance its character and amenities. Until late Victorian times it was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north. The area retains many green expanses including the eastern part of Hampstead Heath, three ancient woods, Waterlow Park and the eastern-facing slopes known as Highgate bowl. At its centre is Highgate village, largely a collection of Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants, residential streets, and the Sacred Spirits Distillery interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, St. Joseph's Church and its green copper dome, Highgate School (1565), Jacksons Lane arts centre housed in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu". He published his first solo collection of poems, ''Poems, Chiefly Lyrical'', in 1830. "Claribel" and "Mariana", which remain some of Tennyson's most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although described by some critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Tennyson's early poetry, with its medievalism and powerful visual imagery, was a major influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Tennyson also excelled at short lyrics, such as "Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears", and "Crossing the Bar". Much of his verse was based on classical myt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Byng, 2nd Earl Of Strafford
George Stevens Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford, PC (8 June 1806 – 29 October 1886), styled Viscount Enfield between 1847 and 1860, of Wrotham Park in Middlesex (now Hertfordshire) and of 5 St James's Square, London, was a British peer and Whig politician. Origins Byng was the eldest son of Field Marshal John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford (1772–1860) by his first wife, Mary Mackenzie. Military career In 1822, after graduating from the Royal Military College, Byng joined the 29th Regiment of Foot as an ensign by purchase. In 1825 he transferred to the 85th Regiment of Foot as a lieutenant and was promoted to captain in 1826, in which rank he served in the 60th Rifles. In 1837, after he had begun his political career, he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the part-time Royal West Middlesex Militia. On the death of the regiment's colonel in 1844 Byng succeeded to the command. His eldest son, the Hon George Byng, was commissioned as his lt-col on 30 October 1853. He retired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Of The United Kingdom
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. Victoria, a constitutiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Wordsworth
Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth (25 December 1771 – 25 January 1855) was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Dorothy Wordsworth had no ambitions to be a public author, yet she left behind numerous letters, diary entries, topographical descriptions, poems, and other writings. Life She was born on Christmas Day in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1771. Despite the early death of her mother, Dorothy, William and their three brothers had a happy childhood. When in 1783 their father died and the children were sent to live with various relatives, Dorothy was sent alone to live with her aunt, Elizabeth Threlkeld, in Halifax, West Yorkshire. After she was able to be reunited with William, firstly at Racedown Lodge in Dorset in 1795 and afterwards (1797/98) at Alfoxden House in Somerset, they became inseparable companions. The pair lived in poverty at first, and would often beg for cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's '' magnum opus'' is generally considered to be '' The Prelude'', a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published by his wife in the year of his death, before which it was generally known as "the poem to Coleridge". Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850. Early life The second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson, William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in what is now named Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland, (now in Cumbria), part of the scenic region in northwestern England known as the Lake District. William's sister, the poet and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, to who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esher
Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up Area. Esher has a linear commercial high street and is otherwise suburban in density, with varying elevations, few high rise buildings and very short sections of dual carriageway within the ward itself. Esher covers a large area, between 13 and 15.4 miles southwest of Charing Cross. In the south it is bounded by the A3 Portsmouth Road which is of urban motorway standard and buffered by the Esher Commons. Esher is bisected by the A307, historically the Portsmouth Road, which for approximately forms its high street. Esher railway station (served by the South West Main Line) connects the town to London Waterloo. Sandown Park Racecourse is in the town near the station. In the south, Claremont Landscape Garden owned and managed by the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
