ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Why is there a blue plaque in Birmingham to the US author Washington Irving?

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Why is there a blue plaque in Birmingham to the US author Washington Irving?

QUESTION: Why is there a blue plaque in Birmingham to the U.S. author Washington Irving?

Washington Irving (1783-1859), the celebrated American author, had a close relationship with Birmingham, where he spent many years. 

His first visit was in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when he stayed with his sister Sarah, her husband Henry van Wart and their children.

Henry, an American businessman turned British citizen, was a significant figure in Birmingham’s civic and economic development, founding the Birmingham Stock Exchange and serving as one of the city’s first aldermen. 

Irving was in Birmingham to reconnect with British businesses and help his family’s finances, which had been badly affected by the War of 1812.

Irving lived with the Van Wart family in various places around Birmingham, including Icknield Street West, Camden Hill (now Newhall Hill), 12 Calthorpe Street in Edgbaston (where the blue plaque is) and ‘The Shrubbery’ on Hagley Road. He affectionately named the homes ‘Castle van Tromp’.

Irving worshipped at St Paul’s Church in St Paul’s Square. At the time when Irving was here, most of what we now know as Birmingham was countryside on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution.

Irving explored Birmingham’s surroundings, visiting landmarks such as Aston Hall and Perrott’s Folly. His travels extended across England, Scotland and Wales, where he met notable literary figures Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sir Walter Scott. Scott was a particularly prominent figure in Irving’s life, becoming a mentor to him as well as a lifelong friend.

Drawing, 1929 by James Montgomery Flagg, for the book by Washington Irving

During his time in Birmingham, he wrote many of his well-known works including The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1819-20), which included his most famous stories Rip Van Winkle and TheLegend Of Sleepy Hollow. 

Bracebridge Hall, Or The Humorists, A Medley (1822) was inspired by Aston Hall and its historical associations.Today, Birmingham honours the author’s legacy with Irving Street and Washington Street, both of which are near the city centre.

Keith Jacobs, Birmingham

QUESTION: Why is the bastard toadflax plant so-called?

Bastard toadflax actually refers to two plants, depending on where you are.

The prefix ‘bastard’ in botanical names historically denotes plants that resemble or are similar to another group but don’t belong to it.

In North America, bastard toadflax is the common name of Comandra umbellata, which gets its scientific name from the Greek for ‘male hairs’ (comandra; due to the hairs at the base of the plant’s stamens) and the shape of its flower.

The UK’s bastard toadflax is Thesium humifusum, which, like Comandra umbellata, is hemiparasitic, meaning it photosynthesises as well as extracting water and nutrients from nearby plants.

Both bastard toadflaxes are members of the sandalwood family (Santalaceae), while ‘true’ toadflax is from the Plantaginaceae (plantain) family, genus Linaria. It is thought that the name toadflax came about because the flowers look like little toads, with their wide mouth similar to that of a toad.

Toadflax pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show. In North America, bastard toadflax is the common name of Comandra umbellata

Toadflax pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show. In North America, bastard toadflax is the common name of Comandra umbellata

S. W. Davy, Southwell, Notts

QUESTION: What is a Marsden Square in cartography?

A Marsden Square is a system used in cartography and geography to divide the Earth’s surface into a grid of squares for easy referencing, particularly in mapping oceans. 

Tomorrow’s questions:

Q: When was the term ‘new wave’ first used? What was it referring to?

Harold Grey, Chester, Cheshire

Q: Has an actor written a successful screenplay?

Charles Baker, Gloucester

Q: What caused Mars’s so-called ‘chaos terrain’?

Sandra Smith, Salford

It is beneficial for observations made by seafarers that are not made at fixed locations. 

The system is fairly simple, whereby each ten-degree square of latitude and longitude has been assigned a number, beginning at Greenwich and the equator with 001 and progressing westward around the globe. 

In this way, the world is subdivided into a grid of 936 Marsden Squares. These can then be subdivided into five- or one-degree squares for increased precision.

The system was named after William Marsden (1754-1836), Secretary of the Admiralty (and Vice-President of The Royal Society), who devised the grid idea in the early 19th century. 

But available records suggest that the system was in fact probably invented, and certainly implemented, by Robert FitzRoy soon after he became head of the British Meteorological Office in 1854.

FitzRoy is mostly remembered as the captain of the Beagle from 1828 to 1836, during two surveying voyages to the southern coast of South America, who invited a young naturalist called Charles Darwin aboard for company.

While largely superseded by GPS and digital mapping systems, Marsden Squares are still important for historical data comparison.

Stuart Butler, Portsmouth

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