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?