After a week when Boris shook up his cabinet, upset the French (again!) with a tri-partite submarine agreement and used up some of his Avios air-miles by flying to New York and Washington, here are five quick-fire questions to brighten up your Sunday morning.

Questions:

1. Michael Gove has been appointed Secretary of State for the newly named Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Over the past eleven years, his role has been filled by Eric Pickles (2010-15), Greg Clark (2015-16), Sajid Javid (2016-18), James Brokenshire (2018-19) and Robert Jenrick (2019-21). As part of the levelling-up agenda, his Whitehall department will shortly begin their rolling relocation to which West Midlands city?

2. Today is European Day of Languages. Globally, 267 million people speak French and 258 million people speak Russian, with a similar number speaking Portuguese. However, which are the four most spoken languages in the world?

3. On this day in 1665, the Great Plague in London reached its peak. Parliament determined that it would move to Oxford on 9 October and, at Cambridge University, student Isaac Newton was required to continue his studies from home. The Plague killed a quarter of London’s population over eighteen months. The latest Government data indicates that, over the past seven days, there have been 1,000 deaths from Covid-19 across the whole of the UK and a total of c.136,000 since the pandemic began last year. How many people died from the Bubonic Plague in the week leading up to 26 September 1665?

4. Wednesday this week (29 September) will be the Michaelmas Quarter day. The origin of the Quarter day dates back to before the Middle Ages, when they were the days when servants were hired, school terms started and rents were due. They fell on four religious festivals and were close to the two solstices and two equinoxes. One of their key purposes was to ensure that disputes over debts and lawsuits were not allowed to linger. In a two-part question, can you name the three other Quarter days (and their dates), and, secondly, do you know how much rent was still outstanding 35 days after the last June Quarter day?

5. Today will see the conclusion of the 43rd Ryder Cup. After an informal match at Wentworth in 1926, the first official Ryder Cup match was held in 1927 at The Worcester County Club in Massachusetts. The cup was donated by Sam Ryder, a wealthy golf enthusiast. It was made from gold, which may explain why the original is kept safely under lock and key and the winners only receive a replica. Was Mr Ryder:

a) A US real estate developer who was born in St Albans City, Vermont and moved to New York where he was an early developer of skyscrapers in Manhattan, but whose fortune evaporated in The Wall Street Crash of 1929; or

b) A seed merchant from Manchester who moved to St Albans, England where he successfully set up a business selling packets of seeds for one penny from his home?

Good luck and enjoy this pre-Michaelmas Sunday.

Answers:

1. The Department of Levelling Up is moving to Wolverhampton. The Weekly wonders whether Mr Gove, who has enjoyed living in Notting Hill, will be re-locating to the Midlands too?
2. According to Statista, the most spoken languages are English (1.35 billion), Mandarin (1.12 billion), Hindi (600 million) and Spanish (543 million). Is it time for the language component of the UK national curriculum to be revised?
3. During the week leading up to 26 September 1665, 7,165 people died in London. Overall, the plague killed about 100,000.
4. The four quarter days are Lady Day (25 March), Midsomer Day (24 June), Michaelmas Day (29 September) and Christmas Day (25 December). According to Remit Consulting, 21.4% of rents were still outstanding 35 days after the June Quarter Day. So much for not allowing disputes to linger!
5. It is true that the New York skyline changed rapidly in the 1920s but the rest of the American version of Mr Ryder is rubbish! In fact, Sam Ryder was a wealthy English seed merchant who displayed an excellent example of WFH.