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Gad's Hill
Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent, sometimes spelt Gadshill Place and Gad's Hill Place, was the country home of Charles Dickens, the most successful British author of the Victorian era. Today the building is the independent Gad's Hill School. The house was built in 1780 for a former Mayor of Rochester, Thomas Stephens, opposite the present Sir John Falstaff Public House. Gad's Hill is where Falstaff commits the robbery that begins Shakespeare's ''Henriad'' trilogy (''Henry IV, Part 1'', '' Henry IV, Part 2'' and ''Henry V''). Dickens Charles Dickens first saw the mansion when he was 9 years old in 1821, when his father John Dickens told Charles that if he worked hard enough, one day he would own it or just such a house. Forster, John ''The Life of Charles Dickens'' Published by Cecil Palmer, London (1872-74) As a boy, Dickens would often walk from Chatham to Gads Hill Place as he wished to see it again and again as an image of his possible future.Ackroyd, Peter ''Dickens'' Pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gad's Hill School
Gad's Hill School in Higham, Kent, England, is an independent school for day pupils, founded in 1924. It is set in the former Gads Hill Place, the country home of Charles Dickens. School history Charles Dickens died in what is now the school conservatory, but was formerly the school refectory. Cedric Charles Dickens, the author's great-grandson, was a governor of the school until his death in 2006. Marion Dickens, the author's great-great-granddaughter, is a former pupil of the school and, as of 2019, is a Director of the school company. As of 2013, the school was moving into purpose-built buildings in the grounds of the house. Inspection judgements As of 2018, the school's most recent inspection by the Independent Schools Inspectorate was in 2017. The school was judged to meet all the regulatory compliance standards and educational quality was judged as good. Academic performance In 2017, the school's Attainment 8 score at GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatham, Kent
Chatham ( ) is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. The town developed around Chatham Dockyard and several Army barracks, together with 19th-century forts which provided a defensive shield for the dockyard. The Corps of Royal Engineers is still based in Chatham at Brompton Barracks. The Dockyard closed in 1984, but the remaining major naval buildings are an attraction for a flourishing tourist industry. Following closure, part of the site was developed as a commercial port, other parts were redeveloped for business and residential use, and part was used as the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum. Its attractions include the submarine . The town has important road links and the railway and bus stations are the main interchanges for the area. It is the administrative headquarters of Medway unitary authority, as well as its pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander William Kinglake
Alexander William Kinglake (5 August 1809 – 2 January 1891) was an English travel writer and historian. He was born near Taunton, Somerset, and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1837, and built up a thriving legal practice, which, in 1856, he abandoned to devote himself to literature and public life. His first literary venture was ''Eothen; or Traces of travel brought home from the East'' (London: J. Ollivier, 1844), a very popular work of Eastern travel, apparently first published anonymously, in which he described a journey he made about ten years earlier in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, together with his Eton contemporary Lord Pollington. Elliot Warburton said it evoked "the East itself in vital actual reality" and it was instantly successful. However, his ''magnum opus'' was ''The Invasion of Crimea: Its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan'', in 8 volumes, published from 1863 to 188 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Leech (caricaturist)
John Leech (29 August 1817 – 29 October 1864) was a British caricaturist and illustrator. He was best known for his work for ''Punch'', a humorous magazine for a broad middle-class audience, combining verbal and graphic political satire with light social comedy. Leech catered to contemporary prejudices, such as anti-Americanism and antisemitism and supported acceptable social reforms. Leech's critical yet humorous cartoons on the Crimean War helped shape public attitudes toward heroism, warfare, and Britons' role in the world. Leech also enjoys fame as the first illustrator of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella '' A Christmas Carol''. He was furthermore a pioneer in comics, creating the recurring character ''Mr. Briggs'' and some sequential illustrated gags. Early life John Leech was born in London. His father, a native of Ireland, was the landlord of the London Coffee House on Ludgate Hill, "a man", on the testimony of those who knew him, "of fine culture, a profound Shakes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percy Hethrington Fitzgerald
Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald (26 April 1830 – 24 November 1925) was an Anglo-Irish author and critic, painter and sculptor. Fitzgerald was born in Ireland at Fane Valley, County Louth, the son of Thomas FitzGerald. He was educated at Belvedere college Dublin, Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the Irish bar and was for a time crown prosecutor on the northeastern circuit. After moving to London, he became a contributor to Charles Dickens's magazine, ''Household Words'', and later dramatic critic for the ''Observer'' and the '' Whitehall Review''. Among his many writings are numerous biographies and works relating to the history of the theatre. He wrote: ''Life of Sterne''(1864) (See Sterne.); 2nd edition; revised & enlarged (1896); reprinted 1904 * ''Charles Lamb'' (1866) (See Charles Lamb.) ''Life of David Garrick''(1868) (See David Garrick.) The Kembles(1871) ''The Romance of the English Stage''(1874) ''Life of George IV'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Fothergill Chorley
Henry Fothergill Chorley (15 December 1808 – 16 February 1872) was an English literary, art and music critic, writer and editor. He was also an author of novels, drama, poetry and lyrics. Chorley was a prolific and important music and literary critic and music gossip columnist of the mid-nineteenth century and wrote extensively about music in London and in Europe. His opera libretti and works of fiction were far less successful. He is perhaps best remembered today for his lyrics to " The Long Day Closes", a part song set by Arthur Sullivan in 1868. Life and career Chorley was born in Blackley Hurst, near Billinge, Lancashire, England. Chorley was the youngest of four children of Quaker parents, John Chorley (1771–1816), an iron worker and lock maker, and Jane Chorley, née Wilkinson (1779–1851). Chorley's father died, leaving his mother alone with young children. Jane Chorley moved her family to Liverpool to help take care of her half-brother, Dr Rutter, when he b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Stone
Marcus Stone (4 July 1840 – 24 March 1921) was an English painter. Stone was born in London, and was educated at the Royal Academy. Life Marcus Clayton Stone was the son of Frank Stone ARA. Marcus was trained by his father and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, before he was eighteen. A few years later he illustrated, with much success, books by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and other writers who were friends of his family. Stone was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1877, and Academician in 1887. In his earlier pictures, he dealt much with historical incidents, but in his later work, he occupied himself chiefly with a particular type of dainty sentiment, treated with much charm, refinement and executive skill. One of his canvases is in Tate. Most of his works have been engraved, and medals were awarded to him at exhibitions in all parts of the world. Stone and fellow painter Luke Fildes both lived in Melbury Road, Holland Park, in houses designed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which has been proposed as the first modern English detective novel. Born to the London painter William Collins (painter), William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian language, Italian and French language, French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After ''Antonina'', his first novel, appeared in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some of his work appeared in Dickens's journals ''Household Words'' and ''All the Year Round''. They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s, but became addicted to the op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Allston Collins
''Convent Thoughts'' (1850–51; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) Charles Allston Collins (London 25 January 1828 – 9 April 1873) was a British painter, writer, and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Life and work Early years Collins was born in Hampstead, north London, the son of landscape and genre painter William Collins. His older brother was the novelist Wilkie Collins. He was educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. Painting career Collins met John Everett Millais and became influenced by the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites, completing his painting '' Berengaria's Alarm'' in 1850. This depicted the wife of King Richard the Lionheart noticing her missing husband's girdle offered for sale by a peddlar. The flattened modelling, emphasis on pattern making, and imagery of embroidery were all characteristic features of Pre-Raphaelitism. Millais proposed that Collins should become a member of the Brotherhood, but Thomas Woolner and William Mich ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy'' and was one of the fireside poets from New England. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then still part of Massachusetts. He graduated from Bowdoin College and became a professor there and, later, at Harvard College after studying in Europe. His first major poetry collections were ''Voices of the Night'' (1839) and ''Ballads and Other Poems'' (1841). He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and he lived the remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes and translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. His most famous fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", " The Nightingale", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", " The Red Shoes", " The Princess and the Pea", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling", " The Little Match Girl", and " Thumbelina". His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films. Early life Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805. He had a stepsister named Karen. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
