I feel a little like Darryl Hannah in Splash as I have used the television to acclimate to this strange and wonderful place I live. Even as I write this, I realise how silly it seems to rely on television to learn the customs and idiosyncrasies of a unfamiliar environ. Silly it may be, but I have learnt volumes. Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson have helped me adjust to new cooking measurements and taught me how to master cottage pie and lamb roasts. I have figured out how to discern the seemingly endless iterations of the English accent by watching Come Dine With Me. Phil Spencer tells me all about the different areas in England in Location, Location, Location. I have travelled all around this vast and beautiful island on Coast, and learnt about history and culture in Countryfile.
I thought it would be fun to share some of the more interesting tidbits I have learnt from my televised education; one of which is using learnt instead of learned. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy sharing some of my newly acquired knowledge of all things England. And just so you know, I am married to a historian, so I did make sure my factoids were true. Or at least accepted fact and/or rumour...
1. King Edward VII had tattoos. Apparently it became the posh thing for folks in high society to tat up. Such practises were even mentioned in a New York Times article in 1879 declaring "...that in England it is regarded as a customary and proper thing to tattoo the youthful feminine leg..". Winston Churchill's mother Jennie had a snake tattooed on her wrist that she could disguise with a diamond bracelet.
2. In Norfolk ladybugs are called bishy barney bees.
3. Trent Park, an English country manor house was turned into a prisoner of war camp for elite captured German soldiers and officers during World War II. The place was completely bugged, and in the basement German translators transcribed the conversations between the Germans that gave Britain vital war secrets. Some of the transcribers were Jewish immigrants who had escaped Nazi occupation.
4. Public schools are really private schools and tend to be very expensive. Ordinary schools are the free or state maintained schools. College in England refers to the last two years of high school which is called secondary school, and if you go on to higher education you attend University.
5. Fish and Chips first arrived in England in 1860. This was not an indigenous food item. Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant, is credited with the first "chippy", or fish and chips shop. During World War II, fish and chips were one of the only foods not subject to rationing.
6. In 1822, the America Ground was born in Hastings. A group of about 1000 settlers were living in an area cut off from the official borough of Hastings due to severe storms and the subsequent reshaping of the harbour. They were free from paying taxes as they lived outside of the tax zone. When officials demanded they start paying taxes and rents, the settlers raised the American flag and declared themselves the 24th state of The United States and independent from England.
7. In 1647, Parliament abolished Christmas. It didn't last.
8. Bubble and Squeak, Spotted Dick, Periwinkles, and Toad in the Hole are all food items in England. Bubble and Squeak is made from leftover cabbage and potato from a Sunday roast, Spotted Dick is a sponge cake with raisins, Periwinkles are small snails and Toad in the Hole is sausage baked in a Yorkshire pudding.
9. Big Ben is not the name of the huge clock in London. Big Ben is the bell. The tower that houses said bell and clock is St. Stephen's tower.
10. In 1902, emergency surgery was performed on King Edward VII inside Buckingham Palace. He was suffering from peritonitis and near death. The surgery was performed in a room overlooking the gardens.
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