Customs: UK

Forms of Address

Addressed as "Right Honourable": members of the		Privy Council
Cardinal		Your Eminence
Ambassador		Your Excellency
Non–royal Duke, or a bishop		Your Grace

The wife of a viceroy

Vicereine

Signatures

This style of question is less popular these days – probably falling, for many people, into the category labelled "Who cares?" – but they do still come up occasionally. They can be asked either way round, but if you were given an abbreviation and asked which Bishop wrote it after his name, if might be rather too easy. So I've listed them this way round:

Q: "What does the Bishop of ... write after his name to signify 'of ... '?"		A:
Cambridge		Cantab.
Canterbury		Cantuar.
Chester		Cestr.
Chichester		Cicestr.
Durham		Dunelm.
York		Ebor.
Edinburgh		Edenburgen.
Exeter		Exon.
Norwich		Norvic.
Oxford		Oxon.
Peterborough		Petriburg.
Truro		Truron.
Winchester		Winton.

For example, the Bishop of Norwich (at the time of writing) is Graham James; he signs "Graham Norvic."

These are the ones that are listed in Wikisource: Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary 1908 / List of Abbreviations. They are all abbreviations for terms ending with the suffix '–ensis'; for example, 'Cantab.' is an abbreviation for 'Cantabrigiensis', meaning 'of Cambridge'.

Places

Staffordshire village: home of the Horn Dance, performed on Wakes Monday (early September) – traditionally believed to date from the Middle Ages, but first documented as such in 1686			Abbots Bromley
Cakes and Ale ceremony: held annually since 1482 in (Suffolk town)			Bury St. Edmonds
Market town in Essex, known for its four–yearly 'Flitch Trials', in which couples must convince a jury that, for a year and a day, they have never wished themselves unwed; if successful they are awarded a flitch of bacon			Great Dunmow
Town in East Sussex, has an annual Pirate Day			Hastings
Cornish market town, best known for its Furry Dance (known locally as the Flora Dance) – performed annually on the Feast of St. Michael (8 May) – and the Hal–an–Tow pageant, which takes place on the same day			Helston
Up Helly Aa (torchlit procession and the burning of a replica Viking longship, marking the end of Christmas) is most closely associated with			Lerwick, Shetland
Buckinghamshire market town that's had an annual pancake race since 1445			Olney
Cornish seaside town, best known (at least until the arrival of Rick Stein) for its May Day 'Obby 'Oss festival			Padstow
Lancashire city, granted the unique right by Henry II in 1179 to hold a 'Guild Merchant'. The Guild has been held ever since – every 20 years from 1542 to 1922, then every 20 years since 1952 (last in 2012)			Preston
Battle of the Flowers (held in August each year)			St. Helier, Jersey
Village near Crawley, West Sussex, where the 'British and World Marbles Championship' has been held every year since 1932 – most recently on Good Friday			Tinsley Green
Kentish seaside town, hosts an annual Oyster Festival			Whitstable

Other

Holy Thursday – when Beating the Bounds traditionally takes place			Ascension Day
Annual festival held in Jersey on the second Thursday in August, since 1902 (when it was first held to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII)			Battle of the Flowers
The personification of Great Britain – from the Roman name for the island, but used as a symbol particularly since the Acts of Union between England and Scotland (1706 and 1707)			Britannia
Character depicted in the British equivalent of the American "Kilroy Was Here" graffito: typically shown peering over a wall to ask a question such as "Wot, no sugar?"			Chad
Traditionally believed to bring good luck at a wedding			Chimney sweep
Woking, Surrey, 1886: Britain's first (modern)			Cremation
Used to record clowns' faces for copyright purposes			Egg shells
Became unlawful in England, in its traditional style, on the 18th of February 2005			Fox hunting
Type of fair held annually in Nottingham and Tavistock			Goose Fair
Name used in the North of England for the practice of pulling grotesque faces			Gurning
Mediaeval 'martial game' in which two armoured horsemen, each armed with a lance, ride towards each other at speed and try to break their lance on their opponent's shield, or unseat him			Jousting
Married woman serving as chief attendant to a bride			Matron of honour
First–footing takes place on			New Year's Day
What should you only eat if there's an R in the month?			Oysters
Line of Mars, Girdle of Venus			Palm of your hand (on the)
15th July: it's said that if it rains on this day, it'll rain for 40 days			St. Swithin's Day
Annual ceremony of marking swans on the Thames			Swan upping
Britannia is traditionally shown holding a shield in one hand, and in the other a			Trident
Various annual festivals held in Shetland (Scotland) – most famously in Lerwick, on the last Tuesday in January – to mark the end of the yule (Christmas) season, involving a torchlit procession through the town and culminating in the burning of a replica Viking longship			Up Helly Aa
Known in Celtic tradition, and generally throughout Europe, as the king of the birds; hunted on St. Stephen's Day (Boxing Day) to commemorate his martyrdom			Wren

© Haydn Thompson 2017–22