Extract from I NEVER KNEW THAT ABOUT ENGLAND, by Christopher Winn
Read the following passage and on lined paper, answer the questions, in full sentences.
GOTHAM
(Old English for “Goat home”)
Gotham is a simple Nottingham village, and the men of Gotham were simple people with simple ways. We are told in The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham, published in 1540, that they tried to drown eels in the village pond. They built a hedge around a cuckoo’s nest so that the cuckoo couldn’t fly away. They took their cheeses to the top of the hill and let them roll all the way to Nottingham market on their own. When they got to Nottingham and found the cheeses weren’t there, they assumed they must have got lost and gone to York instead, so they all went off to York to look for them. To hide the church bell from invaders, they took it out on the river and sank it, marking the position with a notch on the side of their boat.
But there may have been method in their madness. In 1200, there were rumours that King John was coming their way for a spot of hunting. If he passed through Gotham, then the village street would become part of the king’s highway, and the villagers subject to new taxes. If they all pretended to be mad, however, then the king would stay away, for lunacy was thought to be contagious. It worked. Trouble was, they played the part so convincingly, everyone else thought they were daft as well and the reputation stuck.
In his travels, American writer WASHINGTON IRVING heard this story and he applied the name Gotham to his home city of New York, which he regarded as full of crazy people. Hence the writers of BATMAN adopted the name Gotham City for their version of New York City.
Well, I never knew this about Nottinghamshire
Answer the following questions in full sentences
- What does “The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham” tell us about the people of Gotham?
- Why did they build hedges around a Cuckoo’s nest?
- What did they do with cheese and what happened to it?
- How did the people of Gotham avoid King John visiting their village?
- Why did the people of Gotham not want the King to visit them?
- At the time of King John, what was the belief about lunacy?
- What did the villagers pf Gotham do to hide the church bell from invaders and how did they mark it’s position?
- Why do you think Gotham was adopted by the writers of Batman?