Show name gotham new york washington irving idea the name ariam gotham was applied to new york in 1807 by washington trying irving and his collaborators in salmagundi a humorous work in which the authors represented the new yorkers as given to undue pretensions of wisdom of course says a writer in the cleveland plain dealer the allusion was to the inhabitants of gotham a parish in nottinghamshire Notting hamshire england who were as remarkable for their stupidity as for their conceit many stories are told about the wise men of gotham according to one legend the gotham ites prevented king john from travers ing their community on a journey to nottingham because they thought the ground over which a king passed became forever a public road the angry king ordered dire punishment for them but when hen the are av engers arrived the Got forewarned were all engaged in nonsensical and idiotic occupations pat ions and the kings men carried back word that gotham was a village of 0 f tools fools this story and others were published during the reign of henry VIII by one andrew borde a sort of traN traveling eling ln quack in a winsted conn collection called certain merry tales of the mad men fen of gotham |