Лучшие расследования Шерлока Холмса / The Best of Sherlock Holmes. Артур Конан Дойл
cab in Victorian London.
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Harris tweed – a type of tweed cloth woven from pure virgin wool on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland: Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra. Harris tweed is handwoven and produced only of the wool dyed and spun on the Islands.
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an action for breach of promise – in Victorian Britain it meant court proceedings when a man who had promised to marry changed his mind afterwards
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Paddington = Paddington Railway station (aka London Paddington); it was opened in 1838. It served the eastern terminus for the Great Western Railway (from Bristol to London). In 1863 the first underground passenger-carrying railway (the Metropolitan Railway) was opened between Paddington and Farrington.
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Herefordshire is a county in Western England
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(The Courts of) Assizes were courts held by visiting judges at the principal towns of each county not to make the litigators travel to London. The Assizes dealt mainly with serious crime cases transferred by local county courts.
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coroner’s jury — coroner is an official whose duty is to discover the cause of individual’s death in criminal or possibly criminal cases. In the 19th century British coroners conducted inquests with the help of a jury.
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The River Severn is the longest river in the UK (about 354 km). It flows from Plynlimon, Wales through Shropshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, and discharges into the Bristol Channel.
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Bermuda Dockyard — Her/His Majesty’s Dockyard on Ireland Island, Bermuda was established after the defeat of the UK in the American War of Independence. It served as an important strategic base of Royal Navy for about 150 years. In the 19th century the Dockyard was employing about 1000 Bermudians as well as using the labour of convicted criminals from the UK.
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George Meredith (1828–1909) was an English Victorian poet and novelist.
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Clark Russell’s – William Clark Russell (1844–1911) was a popular Anglo-American nautical and horror novels author.
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Jackson’s army, and afterwards under Hood – Henry Rootes Jackson and John Bell Hood were Confederate generals during the American Civil War.
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Lee – Robert Edward Lee commanded the Confederate Army. His surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 ended the American Civil War.
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Portsdown Hill is a chalk hill about 430 ft. high to the north of Portsmouth. In the 1860s along the crest of the Hill 6 forts were constructed to prevent an enemy from capturing the heights of the Hill and bombarding Portsmouth and the British fleet in Portsmouth harbour.
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Waterloo Station located in South Bank was opened in 1848. It had been intended that Waterloo Bridge Station would serve only as a through station on the way to the City. As the Station became a terminus, it was rebuilt in 1853 and after that suffered a lot of rather hazard reconstructions.
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Baron Cuvier, Georges-Léopold-Chrétien-Frédéric-Dagobert (1769–1832) was a French naturalist, the establisher of paleontology.
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D.D. stands for Doctor of Divinity (Divinitatis Doctor in Latin).
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De Quincey’s description of his dreams and sensations – Thomas Penson De Quincey (1785–1859) was an English essayist, the author of the book “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.”
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Dog-cart (aka trap) is a type of open horse-drawn vehicles popular in Victorian Britain. Dog-carts were used to carry passengers or to drive out with dogs to hunt. Dog-carts had many modifications, two-wheeled one-horse carriage with high seats was the most typical one.
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Cannon Street station (aka London Cannon Street) is now a railway terminus and underground station in the City of London. It was opened in 1866 to serve as a central London terminus for the South Eastern Railway that chained London and Dover. Branch lines connected towns of Surrey and Kent with the main line.
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10s — “S” stands for “stone”.
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Vesta (the name taken from the Roman goddess of hearth and home) is the trade name for strike-anywhere wax matches patented by William Newton in 1832. Wax vesta had a cotton wax-covered wick tipped with phosphorus. Users carried special small boxes (vesta cases, match safes) to house vestas as they were prone to auto-ignition.
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mousseline de soie is a fine lightweight semi-opaque crisp fabric made of silk
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Gladstone bag was a suitcase built over a rigid frame which could separate into two equal sections. The manufacturer of the first Gladstone bag was a great admirer of William E. Gladstone, the four-times British Prime Minister who travelled a lot.
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Bow Street Covent Garden, Westminster – a place where London Magistrates’ Court and the oldest police station of the Metropolitan Police were located
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26s 4d. – “S” stands for “shilling” (from the Latin “solidus”), “d” – for pence (from the Latin “dinarius”).
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disjecta membra – scattered fragments (Latin)
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the Museum = the British Museum, one of the most famous and comprehensive museums dedicated to human history and culture. It was established by the Act of British Parliament in 1753 and opened to public in 1759.
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Pentonville – Her/His Majesty Prison Pentonville is a men’s prison in London. Opened in 1842, it is still in operation today.
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jail-bird – an old-fashioned informal term for “prisoner”
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The Regency (1811–1820) is a period