Portal:United Kingdom/Did you know/January 2008


 * ...that the Elizabethan Sir John Thynne built the great house at Longleat and founded the family which became Marquesses of Bath?
 * ...that the English historian Sir Raymond Carr also writes about fox hunting?
 * ...that London's St James's Club (1857-1978) was claimed to be the only gentlemen's club with a room devoted solely to backgammon?
 * ...that as well as being the only contemporary anthology of 17th century Scottish Gaelic verse, the Fernaig manuscript is written in a form of English orthography unique to the author?
 * ...Englishman Christopher Merret wrote the first description of the méthode champenoise used to make sparkling wine, long before it was documented in Champagne?