Double-decker bus The first double-deckers appeared in London in 1851. They were invented to carry the people who visited the Great Exhibition that was held that year. The first double-deckers were pulled by horses and they didn’t have a roof. Today there are three and a half thousand double-deckers in London alone. There are seven different types, and they can carry 89 passengers. We can see double-deckers also in South Africa, the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong and Berlin. Parliament The British Parliament has become the model that is followed by all democratic countries. It is the main law-making body in Britain and consists of the House of Lords and House of Commons. The House of Commons has six hundred and fifty-one elected members. Here are all new laws debated. In 1605 there was an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. It is celebrated as Guy Fawkes Day on November the 5th every year. The Milkman The typical milkman gets up at about three o’clock in the morning to deliver milk to the doorsteps of about five hundred houses. Nearly 95% of British people think that having milk delivered by milkman is great tradition, which should not be lost, but only 40% actually buy their milk from the milkman! However, that is still 4.45 billion pints of milk each year! Most milk is delivered in glass bottles. Mass production of milk bottles started in 1920s when pasteurisation was introduced. Today the bottles are washed and re-used at least twelve times. Cricket Cricket is a game, which is played by two teams of eleven players. One team bowls and the other team bats. The one team try to hit the ball as far as possible. The other team try to catch the ball. The first known cricket rules were written in 1744. Cricket matches can last from an afternoon to five days for an international game that is called a Test Match. The English Country Garden The English country garden was originated in medieval times. Then it was a place to grow herbs like parsley, sage and rosemary which were used to flavour food. Later the other plants were introduced, especially flowers for decoration. Gardening has become one of the most popular British hobbies. The weather The British weather has a bad reputation. People are always complaining about it, and going abroad for holidays has become a popular way of avoiding it. The British climate is actually quite good, the winters are relatively mild and the summers are not too hot. The problem is that British weather is very changeable. This is because Britain is an island on the edge of Europe and might receive wet weather from Atlantic, hot weather from Africa or cold weather from the Arctic. Stonehenge Stonehenge on Salisbury plain in Wiltshire is one of the most mysterious prehistoric sites in Britain. The stone circle was built approximately four and a half thousand years ago, probably as a site for religious ceremonies. Stonehenge may also have been used as an astronomic observatory. Watching the sun and moon rise over certain stones would have shown the exact time of year. These stones weigh nearly 4 tones. The people who built Stonehenge probably dragged some of these stones all the way from South Wales, a distance of almost four hundred kilometres!
