Having written about Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, we know that England often lived more by the might of her navy and army than by her democratic principles. Throw in imperialism and one might ask why we should care about England at all. Well, the U.S. doesn’t always live up to its ideals either. Yet on a field at Runymede, King John was forced to give a great charter. In a cottage in Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare was born, our law and our language. Many sins must be forgiven!
I had been in London 37 years prior. Yet I forgot the thrill of looking at Big Ben. Behind it or adjacent to it is parliament. Across the street is Westminster Abbey. I was always an Anglophile in that I favored evolution over revolution. Yet you cannot ignore the pain that produced this relatively prosperous country. Remember Dicken’s Oliver Twist, Bronte’s Shirley, and Eliot’s Felix Holt, but whoever said that progress can be had without pain: think of Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Trafalgar Square with its Nelson monument. Actually, in Liverpool the words that made Nelson famous are conspiclously displayed: “England expects every man will do his duty; no more, no less.” A motto for life? We went to see Miss Saigon at the Drury Lane. The Drury Lane goes back to the time of Sheridan. Down the block was Covent Garden. We were quoted $250 for Solti’s La Traviata. Thank you, I’ll settle for CD’s.
Harrods, Hyde Park, The Royal Albert Hall of the proms. We didn’t even make it to the tower or Madame Tussauds.
Then Stonehenge. A landing platform for spacemen? The theory most accepted is that sun worshippers put up the stones. Then Bath. Bath is a Roman town, as are so many in England. Later we went to Chester and York. Tudor arc hi lecture all – over the place. We saw Hadrian’s Wall, which at one time was the northern most outpost of the Roman empire.
The Lake Country, where Wordsworth_ composed “Daffodils” and Coleridge composed “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” Lake Windemere reminded me of Lake George in New York.
Let’s get back to Liverpool. We stayed in the financial district. We saw the Cotton Exchange. Probably the same Cotton Exchange that so needed the Confederacy’s cotton, but England never recognized the Confederacy. Ferry, cross the Mersey! I actually photographed the ferry. It was a short walk from our hotel to Cavern Pub and Cavern Walk, where a pennant tells you it all began for the Beatles.
In Leeds, we saw The Black Prince, a statue against the city hall. Beautiful Coventry, where, I believe, Spitfires were made. The old cathedral with its roof blown off by German bombs, and the new cathedral, which in its modernity Just cannot compare.
Stratford-on-Avon and Oxford for beauty and as tourist attractions. Blenheim Castle of the Duke of Marlborough – Churchill’s ancestor. Hampton Court, and Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guard is strictly for the tourists – so we did it twice. We made friends with a corporal of horse and when we saw him on his horse with his troupe in the ceremony, we went wild. Oh! Yeah! Do the pubs and the fish and chips. What the hell! You can’t do all culture all the time, and with a l7½% V.A.T., real restaurants are very expensive and not as much fun. One last word: the British have to stop worrying about the oil shock and air condition the country. Blame it on global warming.