Victorian England quiz

More questions about Victorian England

These visible examples show the question style. LearnClash turns the full topic into ranked duels and spaced repetition.

1. 1 Easy

   What caused the 1858 crisis that had Parliament soaking its curtains in chloride of lime?

   Answer: Raw sewage in the Thames

   Why: Shade temperatures hit 34 to 36 °C in June 1858, and by 2 August Parliament had passed the law for Bazalgette's sewers.

2. 2 Medium

   Which nurse founded a pioneering secular nursing school in London in 1860?

   Answer: Florence Nightingale

   Why: The public Nightingale Fund paid for the school: its first fifteen probationers reached St Thomas' on 9 July 1860 on £10 for the year, board included.

3. 3 Hard

   What institutions did the 1834 Poor Law create to house the poor?

   Answer: Workhouses

   Why: By 1839 some 583 Poor Law unions covered about 95 percent of parishes, and the new law meant able-bodied paupers were to be relieved only inside a workhouse.

4. 4 Easy

   Which fuel chiefly powered steam engines in Victorian Britain?

   Answer: coal

   Why: Coal smoke combined with fog to create toxic 'pea-souper' smogs that killed thousands of Londoners.

5. 5 Medium

   What were the cheap, sensational serial stories sold for a penny?

   Answer: Penny Dreadfuls

   Why: They cost a twelfth of what a Dickens instalment did, which is exactly why respectable opinion worried so much about who was reading them.

6. 6 Hard

   What was the common name for the thick, yellow London fog?

   Answer: Pea souper

   Why: The comparison dates back to at least 1820, when an artist wrote of a fog as thick and yellow as eating-house pea soup.