h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

thanks for explaining - do the hampsters leave the building regularly then ?

That makes sense. Jim

I have two things that the uk should import from japan,1is mirrors on t junctions or bends and n2 is the toilet cistern ,every house here has one its old stuff but when you flush you can wash your hands using the water going into the cistern it saves water

Azara,

I said that Great Britain relates to the whole of the British Isles, geographically speaking but not in political terms or divisions. I stand by my statement and quote the Macmillan Encyclopaedia:
'British Isles: An archipelago separated from the mainland of N.W. Europe by the North Sea and the English Channel.
It consists of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. Area: about 314950 square km (121577 square mmls).'
The original use of Great Britain was meant to be interpreted as 'Greater Britain', which means the whole of the group of British islands. Nothing to do with the political definitions of the individual parts, everything to do with geographical grouping.

James VI/I was the first person to use the term 'Great Britain', to represent the union of England & Wales with Scotland. I don't think the entire country included Ireland in 1603, so 'Great Britain' in its original sense would only refer to the one island that it still refers to today.

If there are a lot of changes, just assign it to me then, I really won't mind

Ah but technically Scotland and England weren't unified (as well as Wales) until the Act of Union 1707, then with Ireland in 1800, then without the Republic in 1921 with the Free State agreement. Just incase you needed to know the legality of it.

Thank you! 1707 - I've been trying to remember that date for the past few days, but have been too lazy to actually look it up.

But James was talking about Great Britain all through his reign, and he was the one to come up with the idea of combining the Cross of St George and the Cross of St Andrew to make a sort of prototype of the modern British flag.

I know this bit about James because I saw it on the Simon Schama History of Britain programme, just in case you were wondering.

I have a book by him, or part of a book to be precise, about the Fall of the Bastille which my English teacher gave to me as a leaving present, I really should read it sometime. Part of Penguin's 70th Anniversary thing, bits of books for dirt cheap to make you buy the whole thing.

I have a book by him, or part of a book to be precise, about the Fall of the Bastille which my English teacher gave to me as a leaving present, I really should read it sometime. Part of Penguin's 70th Anniversary thing, bits of books for dirt cheap to make you buy the whole thing.

Got a free one in the Independent yesterday actually

I see a combination of the St George and St Andrew Cross everyday on my commute, it is a weird one because I'm so used to seeing the union jack that when I saw that one I thought I was going mad... they fly it at one of the farmers out in the middle of no where

Do we even have an entry on James I?



This list just keeps on growing...

Yeah it's amazing how that happens when you start thinking about it.

So stop thinking about it!!!!!

In a few months I'm gona leave a proposal on the relevent University faculty page to do a project about the entire monarchy of Britain. From 1066 England to present day and also Scotland all the way to James VII. Possibly some of Wales as well until Edward Longshanks who I believe was the first person to be Prince of Wales and stopped Welsh royalty. I don't know enough about Ireland though. But still, the English and Scottish one I'd definitely wana give a go/oversee. Plus there's loads around already so its just more linking them up.

There are plenty of us could help you out.

some off us could even help take things back a little way into the Saxon Kingdoms.

Wow, sounds like fun! Can I do the subbing?

The problem with going back into Saxony is that England wasn't a unified country then, there were various kings throughout the land. Would make the project very hard and a lot more convoluted

Are we having another Tony Curtis campaign and nobody told me ?

Oooh, now here's a good example of synchronicity. As soon as we've made decent progress on the 'Counties of the UK' project, we were looking for another major pan-h2g2 project for lots of people to work on together, and Kings & Queens of the UK was absolutely at the top of our list...

Paully

Well I guess I'm just so in tune with the ethos of HooToo that I can predict these things, I'd really like to be part of it but I'm so busy at the moment, I'll have to hurry a few things up and see if I can help, or help on this regional one.