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When used in historical or architectural terms, this word refers to the period of King George and items produced at that time, and not the country of Georgia or the State of the USA. It is possibly a unique eponym in that it derives from not one man’s name, but four. Kings George I, II, III and IV ruled Britain from 1714 to 1830, and the first 90-odd years were very much influenced by their Hanoverian antecedents. The Georges liked order and control, as shown by their abhorrence of social reform at home and the French and American Revolutions. Yet they also encouraged the arts and their chief achievement was the consolidation of the United Kingdom once the Jacobites (see below) had been defeated, with the start of the British Empire’s expansion also taking place during their reigns. The Regency period ran from 1811 to 20, when the later King George IV was briefly let off the leash, while his father, George III, after being mentally incapacitated, ended the Georgian era, leaving visible signs of its existence in various cities such as Bath and Edinburgh’s New Town.