Q 01/05

Legend says Alfred the Great, hiding from the Vikings in a peasant woman's hut, was scolded for burning what?

A) Porridge

B) Bacon

C) Stew

D) Cakes

Answer · why

D) Cakes

Cakes left baking by the fire burned while the fugitive king brooded over his troubles. The woman, who had no idea who her guest was, gave him a thoro...

Q 02/05

Which member of the British royal family was created Earl of Wessex on his wedding day in 1999?

A) Prince Edward

B) Prince Andrew

C) Prince Charles

D) Prince Michael

Answer · why

A) Prince Edward

Prince Edward broke with the custom that a sovereign's sons are made royal dukes. He took instead an earldom that had lain unused since before the Nor...

Q 03/05

The Wessex Saddleback, a black breed with a white band over its shoulders, is what kind of farm animal?

A) A goat

B) A pig

C) A sheep

D) A pony

Answer · why

B) A pig

A pig from Wiltshire and the New Forest, the Wessex Saddleback has died out as a pure breed in Britain. It survives in small numbers in Australia and ...

Q 04/05

Which novelist revived the name Wessex for the half-imagined region of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and other books?

A) Thomas Hardy

B) Charles Dickens

C) George Eliot

D) Anthony Trollope

Answer · why

A) Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy first borrowed the old kingdom's name in Far from the Madding Crowd. His fictional region grew from a corner of Dorset to cover half a do...

Q 05/05

The Westland Wessex, which hunted submarines for the Royal Navy and served with the RAF, was what type of aircraft?

A) A flying boat

B) A jet fighter

C) A helicopter

D) A biplane

Answer · why

C) A helicopter

A helicopter built under licence from the American Sikorsky S-58, the Wessex swapped the original piston engine for a gas turbine, which made it quiet...