After Victoria, it all ended in tiers
QUESTION What are the origins of the tiered wedding cake?
Legend has it that the tiered wedding cake was created by a baker’s apprentice in late 18th-century London. The story goes that William Rich fell in love with his employer’s daughter. He wanted to impress her with a large, beautiful cake and his inspiration came from the spire of St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, which has an unusual tiered structure.
The tradition, however, was more likely copied from the great cakes created for royal weddings. When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and gotha on February 10, 1840, they were treated to a three-tiered wedding cake that weighed 300lb, with decorations, including figurines of the couple, on the top.
Following the wedding, similar cakes became fashionable across the country.
susan Penrice, Brighton, e. sussex.
QUESTION In Westerns, why did saloons always have small swing doors? What was their purpose?
THeSe are called batwing doors and, contrary to Hollywood mythology, they were rarely the main entrance to a saloon bar.
Most parts of the U.S. were too cold in winter and too windy in summer for them to be useful. Plus the presence of horses and unpaved streets meant that flies and other pests could enter the premises, so they usually acted as a secondary barrier within the building, either behind a standard set of solid doors on the outermost part of the entrance or within the building to separate the drinking area from other areas.
As for Hollywood’s depiction of saloon doors, set designers made them smaller than they would be in real life so that heroes such as John Wayne and gary Cooper would look more impressive bursting through them.
Jonathan Riley, Needham Market, suffolk.
QUESTION Have any backing bands dumped their lead singer and formed a successful group?
FURTHeR to the earlier answer, it is often forgotten now but Ultravox started off with John Foxx as their vocalist. He quit in 1979 and Midge Ure took over as frontman. Almost immediately the band went on to have major success, most notably with Vienna (1980), one of the anthems of the era. Derek Porter, West Calder, West lothian.
IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.