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Welcome to our Victorian Quizzes


Victorian Quiz I

  1. The Victorian era ended on Queen Victoria's death in 1901, but in which year did it start?
  2. The British nicknamed which country the brightest "jewel in the crown"?
  3. Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is best known for the construction of what (between 1825 and 1843)?
  4. In which royal residence did Queen Victoria spend her final days?




  5. Which Whig prime minister was in office when Queen Victoria came to the throne?
  6. What officially opened on 17 November 1869?
  7. "The Great Game" was a political and diplomatic confrontation that existed for most of the 19th century between the British Empire and which other empire?
  8. The Vaccination Act of 1853 made it mandatory for children to be vaccinated against which disease?
  9. The Great Exhibition, which was organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert in 1851, took place in Hyde Park in which impressive building?
  10. Sir Henry Cole is credited with introducing the world's first commercial what in 1843? (Note: yes, it is the same Henry Cole as in the previous question)
  11. The signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 ended which war?
  12. Which respected historian's 1837 three-volume work The French Revolution was the inspiration for Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities

Answers:

  1. 1837
  2. India
  3. Thames Tunnel
  4. Osborne House (in East Cowes, Isle of Wight)
  5. Lord Melbourne
  6. Suez Canal
  7. The Russian Empire
  8. Smallpox
  9. The Crystal Palace
  10. Christmas cards
  11. First Opium War
  12. Thomas Carlyle




Victorian Quiz II

  1. Which series of UK labour law Acts in 1844 stated that children 9–13 years could work for 9 hours a day with a lunch break?
  2. The name of which prison became famous through the novels of Charles Dickens, whose father was sent there in 1824 for a debt to a baker?
  3. Which mining magnate founded De Beers in 1880?
  4. The siege of which large city lasted from October 1854 until September 1855 during the Crimean War?
  5. What name was given to an event in central London in July and August 1858 in which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent?
  6. What did William Henry Fox-Talbot pioneer?
  7. How many children did Queen Victoria have?
  8. In the first ever F.A. Cup, held at Kennington Oval in 1872, which football team beat the Royal Engineers by a single goal?
  9. Which magazine (founded in 1841) was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration?
  10. At what age did Victoria come to the throne?
  11. In 1868, which Liberal politican defeated Conservative Benjamin Disraeli to become prime minister, a position he held for four terms?
  12. Playwright Oscar Wilde sued John Sholto Douglas for criminal libel which eventually led to Wilde's downfall, by what title is John Douglas better known?

Answers:

  1. The Factory Acts
  2. The Marshalsea
  3. Cecil Rhodes
  4. Sevastopol (or Sebastopol)
  5. The Great Stink
  6. Photography
  7. Nine
  8. Wanderers
  9. Punch (its final issue was published in 1992)
  10. 18
  11. William Gladstone
  12. Marquess of Queensberry



Victorian Quiz III

  1. In Victorian cuisine, 'bags of mystery' were a blackly humorous term for which food item?
  2. Which chain of stores opened their first store at 173 Drury Lane, London, in 1869?
  3. Also known as a high wheel and popular in the 1870s and 1880s, what was the name of the first machine to be called a "bicycle"?
  4. In 1873 the first chocolate Easter eggs in the UK were made by which Bristol company?
  5. The Victorian era was its golden age and English ornithologist John Hancock was considered to be the father of this particular skill - what is it?
  6. Who became a national heroine after risking her life to save the stranded survivors of the wrecked steamship Forfarshire in 1838?
  7. In 1875 what did Captain Matthew Webb do in 22 hours?
  8. Who was the first westerner to see what local people called the "Smoke that Thunders"?
  9. Which British postage stamp was issued in 1841 as a replacement for the Penny Black?
  10. In June 1842, which tax was introduced for the first time during peacetime by Sir Robert Peel's Conservative government?
  11. In December 1879, which two-mile railway bridge collapsed with the loss of 75 train passengers' lives?
  12. In 1882 two senior British government officials were murdered in which Dublin park?

Answers:

  1. Sausages
  2. Sainsbury's
  3. Penny-farthing
  4. Fry's
  5. Taxidermy
  6. Grace Darling
  7. Swim the English Channel
  8. David Livingstone (and renamed it Victoria Falls)
  9. Penny Red (the colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in seeing the black cancellation mark on the Penny Black stamp)
  10. Income tax (at a rate of 7d (three pence) in the pound. The tax threshold was an income of £150 per year, thus exempting virtually all the working classes.)
  11. Tay Bridge
  12. Phoenix Park