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Here with another NTNB again - hope you're not bored :D This one was suggested by Guest.

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LONDON, 1890

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H (1865-), 25:

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FN: contains the Anglo-Saxon element ead (https://www.behindthename.com/element/ead).
MN: one of the apostles.
LN: English, ends in y.

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W (1868-), 22:

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FN: would suit a dairy cow.
MN: a fictional female character who would be well-known to English people in the 1860s.
LN: English, ends in w.

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_____ _____ is a railway engineer, working on expanding rail networks across Britain and its colonial territories. He is a pragmatic, determined, enterprising man with a well-hidden romantic streak - the fault of one-too-many a novel about intrepid explorers read as a boy.

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He comes from solid, middle-class stock: his father is a solicitor, as are his three elder brothers. Even as a boy, however, _____ yawned when his father patiently explained case law to his sons, and was instead drawn to machines, disassembling everything he could in the house, from his father's watch to the grandfather clock.

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Now, his childhood dreams have been fulfilled: his work takes him across the country, where be follows eagerly with a large sketchpad tucked under his elbow. There, he faithfully draws what he witnesses: he is eager to show anyone who will look his astonishingly accurate sketches of trains, bridges, and landscapes.

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He is less forthcoming when it comes to showing people his sentimental poems, which praise the beauty of the English countryside and the thundering engines of the trains he works with.

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_____ _____ is a teacher at a local girls' school: or, at least she was until recently. No-one has heard of anything as absurd as a married schoolteacher, after all. She is sharp-witted and socially conscious, and can frequently be found at suffragette meetings. Like her husband, she comes from middle-class stock: her father is a physician, who thought a comprehensive education in the sciences and young arts imperative for any young man or woman.

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Thus, _____ was brought up with intellectual rigour. She thrived in it, though her childhood was not without tragedy: her beloved younger brother died when she was eleven.

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Like her husband, _____ possesses a romantic streak. Hers manifests in her love for flowers: she presses wildflowers between the pages of every book she reads, and intends to grow peonies and petunias in her new garden. But she was brought up to be a practical, resourceful young woman, so the peonies and petunias shall coexist with peas and parsnips.

The young couple were introduced to each other two years ago, at a mutual friend's garden party. _____ had imbibed a bit on the sherry, and started reciting Wordsworth, which _____ found charming. She insisted upon an introduction to this poetic young engineer. For their second meeting, he was sober and apologising profusely for his behaviour a week prior.

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As recompense, he offered to take her on a walk to Hyde Park, if she did not find the suggestion too forward. _____ gladly accepted, and soon, these walks became a weekly tradition: they would walk for hours, and talk about technology, the future of society, and the rights of women. Soon, _____ began sending _____ postcards from his frequent work trips, and when he had started shyly inscribing lines of verse on the back, _____ knew she would marry him.

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Thus, a couple of months ago, they married in a small church in Hampstead and moved into a quaint townhouse in Islington. It is not particularly large, but it boasts a spacious garden (spacious by London standards, that is). There, they intend to host many a garden party.

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masculine list: https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/191050/124079
feminine list: https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/191050/124080

This message was edited 1/1/2025, 12:07 PM