Britain is the name which is used to describe the current United Kingdom, the island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. .
- "Buy a fine Singing Bird?"
- 'Britain's Sure Shield'
- 'Old Sarah'
The well-known Hurdy-Gurdy player One of the most deserving and peculiar of the street musicians was an old lady who played upon a hurdy-gurdy. She had been about the streets of London for upwards of forty years, and being blind, had had during that period four guides, and worn out three instruments. Her cheerfulness, considering her privation and precarious mode of life, was extraordinary. Her love of truth, and the extreme simplicity of her nature, were almost childlike. Like the generality of blind people, she had a deep sense of religion, and her charity for a woman in her station of life was something marvellous; for, though living on alms, she herself had, I was told, two or three little pensioners. - 'Rebecca' riot in South Wales
- A Barrier
These rooms are divided by barriers, guarded by gentlemen of the household, which prevents over-crowding. It is an extraordinary sight to see room after room filled with nervous young girls and their more composed mothers sitting in the unbecoming light of an afternoon sun, with white plumes in their hair and the family jewels on their necks. With the exception of a now and then whispered conversation, everything is quiet until the barriers leading into the next room are opened; then a rush follows and small pieces of lace, spangles, flowers, and ostrich feathers are left on the floor. Mothers and daughters are separated. After the confusion of finding each other, all is quiet for another thirty minutes, when a rush for a better place in the next room begins. - A Bear standing on his Head
One great part of the joculator's profession was the teaching of bears, apes, horses, dogs, and other animals, to imitate the actions of men, to tumble, to dance, and to perform a variety of tricks, contrary to their nature; and sometimes he learned himself to counterfeit the gestures and articulations of the brutes. - A Bed in the Reign of Henry III
- A British Druid
A British Druid - A Cell in the Lollards’ Tower
- A Citizen and his wife
Ordinary Civil Costume ; temp Charles I (From Speed's map of 'The Kingdom of England,' 1646.) - A Coach of the Middle of the Seventeenth Century
(From an engraving by John Dunstall.) - A Constitutional in the Park
A Constitutional in the Park - A Contest with the Longbow
A Contest with the Longbow - A Countryman and Countrywoman
Ordinary Civil Costume ; temp Charles I (From Speed's map of 'The Kingdom of England,' 1646.) - A Drawing Room
On March 11, 1896, the first Drawing-room of that year was held at Buckingham Palace. Through the courtesy of the Lord Chamberlain I was given the entree to the palace on that day. As a Drawing-room is strictly a feminine affair, it matters very little what a man may think about it, for the line points of social advantages and the costly costumes he seldom understands. Apart from the foreign ambassadors, members of the Cabinet and attendants, men are not wanted and are seldom seen. Women go in hundreds, and sit for hours in carriages, extending in long rows down the Mall, while a crowd of curious idlers stare in at the carriage windows, making audible personal remarks. At two o’clock the palace gates are open, and the waiting continues in the different rooms above stairs. - A Drawing-room Tea
A Drawing-room Tea - A Duel in the Riding School
A Duel in the Riding School - A Fatigue Party of Dragoons
A Fatigue Party of Dragoons - A Feat in the XIV. Century
Two boys are depicted holding the hoop, and the third preparing to leap through it, having deposited his cloak upon the ground to receive him. - A first night
A London audience is brilliant. Everyone is in evening dress, and the audience is often more entertaining than the play. This is especially true on a first night. - A Fool's Dance.—XIV. Century
The fool's dance, or a dance performed by persons equipped in the dresses appropriated to the fools, is very ancient, and originally, I apprehend, formed a part of the pageant belonging to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery, usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various ceremonials and mockeries, not only exceedingly ridiculous, but shameful and impious. A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved in a MS. in the Bodleian Library, written and illuminated in the reign of king Edward III. and completed in 1344, is copied below. - A Gentleman and gentlewoman
Ordinary Civil Costume ; temp Charles I (From Speed's map of 'The Kingdom of England,' 1646.) - A Gentleman at Arms
A Gentleman at Arms - A Half-Crownation
Great fun was made of this meagre spectacle, as we may see by the satirical sketch, by H. B., entitled, "Going to a Half-Crownation," where the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex are shown in a hack cab, the King and Queen in a hackney coach, on the box of which sits Lord Chancellor Brougham, bearing the great seal; whilst the omnibus behind contains the Fitzclarences, the King's family by Mrs. Jordan. The peers and peeresses are on foot; first, Lord Grey carrying the Sword of State, then Lord and Lady Durham, and last, Lady Grey. The gentleman on horseback is Mr. Lee, High Bailiff of Westminster. - A Horse baited with Dogs
A manuscript of the fourteenth century, in the Royal Library, contains the following cruel diversion: horse baiting with dogs - A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor
A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor - A Justing Toy
Persons of `rank` were taught in their childhood to relish such exercises as were of a martial nature, and the very toys that were put into their hands as playthings, were calculated to bias the mind in their favour. On the opposite page the reader will find two views of a knight on horseback, completely equipped for the just; four wheels originally were attached to the pedestal, which has a hole in the front for the insertion of a cord. The knight and his horse are both made with brass; the spear and the wheels are wanting in the original, but the hole in which the spear was inserted, still remains under the right arm, and it is supplied upon the print by something like it placed in the proper situation. This curious figure was probably made in the fifteenth century. The man represented may be readily separated from the horse, and is so contrived as to be thrown backwards by a smart blow upon the top of the shield or the front of his helmet, and replaced again with much ease: two such toys were requisite; each of them having a string made fast in the front of the pedestal, being then placed at a distance in opposition the one to the other, they were violently drawn together in imitation of two knights tilting; and by the concussion of the spears and shields, if dexterously managed, one or both of the men were cast to the ground. - A Mediæval Innkeeper
- A Muffish Meeting
- A Neat Meeting
- A Norman Ship
(From the Bayeux Tapestry.) - A Park Orator
Separated from these people by another social gulf, and toward Marble Arch, are the unemployed listening to the park actors and park orators. If you are tall enough to look over the heads of an English crowd you will see in some of these `groups` strolling players at work. In the centre of one group a short, red-faced park orator declares that a Prime Minister has robbed him. - A peep into the sanctum sanctorum 6 June. 1724
- A Posture-Master.—XIV. Century
The display of his abilities consisted in twisting and contorting his body into strange and unnatural attitudes. This art was, in doubt, practised by the jugglers in former ages; and a singular specimen of it, delineated on the last mentioned Bodleian MS., in the reign of Edward III., is here represented. The performer bends himself backwards, with his head turned up between his hands, so as nearly to touch his feet; and in this situation he hangs by his hams upon a pole, supported by two of his confederates. - A Sea-Fight
(From the 'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick'; drawn by John Rous about 1485.) - A Sidewalk Artist
In the early part of the day the parks are occupied by very young people; the visitors become older with the day. The nurses and their charges leave, and evening finds an old lady leaning on her husband’s arm, walking slowly along their favorite path, while their carriage follows at a little distance. And as night comes on they roll back into the great city among the never-ceasing tread of feet, past the side-walk artist sitting by his pictures on the pavement, looking anxiously at the passers-by—and the park’s day is done—a curtain of darkness falls on the great stage - A Sixteenth-century Cooperage
- A Street Row in the East End
A Street Row in the East End - A Sudden Emergency
- A Tournament
- A tumbling Ape
A tumbling Ape - A Typical Street in Bethnal Green
A Typical Street in Bethnal Green - A View a little beyond Woodyates where the Ikening Street crosses part of a Druids barrow Jun. 9. 1724
The drawing is a prospect taken from the king’s barrow, west from Vespasian’s camp, in the way from Ambresbury to Stonehenge, by the Bristol road. Tho’ the graver has not done it justice: yet it will give one a general notion of the situation of the place. It is admirably chosen, being in the midst of those wide downs, call’d Salisbury plain; between the river Avon to the east, and a brook that runs into the Willy, on the west. - A view of Westminster
I suppose there are few boys who have not heard of Westminster Abbey, and who do not know that within its ancient and splendid walls the Kings of England are crowned, and the great, the wise, and the brave of every age are buried. But few, perhaps, are aware that the Abbey also contains the oldest and one of the most famous boys' schools in the world. - Acanthus latifolius (lusitanicus).
Ornamental foliaged herbaceous Section; retaining its leaves till very late in the year. The leaves of this are bold and noble in outline, and the plant has a tendency, rare in some hardy things with otherwise fine qualities, to retain them till the end of the season without losing a particle of their freshness and polished verdure. In fact, the only thing we have to decide about this subject is, what is the best place for it? Now, it is one of those things that will not disgrace any position, and will prove equally at home in the centre of the mixed border, projected in the grass a little from the edge of a choice shrubbery, or in the flower-garden; nobody need fear its displaying anything like the seediness which such things as the Heracleums show at the end of summer. - Adieu, my moustachios
He [King William IV]next began to meddle with the uniforms, etc. in the army, doubtless with a view to save the pockets of the officers, for army dress, under George the Magnificent, had become very much gold belaced and expensive; but of all the orders issued on August 2nd from the Horse Guards, we will only take two. "The moustachios of the Cavalry (excepting in the Life Guards, the Horse Guards, and the Hussars) to be abolished, and the hair of the non-commissioned officer and soldier throughout the regular force to be cut close at the sides and back of the head, instead of being worn in that bushy and unbecoming fashion adopted by some regiments." The illustration is taken from a contemporary song called "Adieu, my Moustachios!" - Administering holy communion with the Housel cloth
From a 14th century manuscript - After Dinner
After Dinner - After Presentation
After Presentation at a drawing-room - Ailantus and Cannas
Suggesting the effects to be obtained from young and vigorous specimens of hardy fine-leaved trees. - Akbar Khan
- Alehouse
- Alfred d Orsay
Alfred d Orsay - All a blowin
- Am I not a man, and a brother
On the 2nd and 16th of October 1837 two sittings took place; at the latter of which a sub-committee, which had been appointed for the purpose, brought in a design for a seal. An African was seen, in chains, in a supplicating posture, kneeling with one knee upon the ground, and with both his hands lifted up to heaven, and round the seal was observed the following motto, as if he was uttering the words himself,—"Am I not a Man and a Brother?" The design having been approved of, a seal was ordered to be engraved from it. This seal, simple as the design was, was made to contribute largely towards turning the attention of our countrymen to the case of the injured Africans, and of procuring a warm interest in their favour. - An Abbot
The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The monastic life was a recognised profession. - An absent desert - the Cromwell Road
An absent desert - the Cromwell Road - An Ale-house lattice
- An Ale-house lattice
- An Ale-stake
The bibulium, that is to say, the ale-house or tavern, displayed its sign for all men to see: the ivy-garland, or wreath of vine-leaves, in honour of Bacchus, wreathed around a hoop at the end of a projecting pole. This bold advertisment of good drink to be had within long outlasted Roman times, and indeed still survives in differing forms, in the signs of existing inns. It became the “ale-stake” of Anglo-Saxon and middle English times. The traveller recognised the ale-stake at a great distance, by reason of its long pole—the “stake” whence those old beer-houses derived their name—projecting from the house-front, with its mass of furze, or garland of flowers, or ivy-wreath, dangling at the end. But the ale-houses that sold good drink little needed such signs, a circumstance that early led to the old proverb, “Good wine needs no bush.”