The day started with a quintessential British institution, one that many Brits are convinced underpinned the rise of their once global empire: the English breakfast. Catherine and I opted for the "vegetarian" version with toast, fruit, yogurt, eggs, vegetable sausage, mushrooms, broiled tomatoes, and the lynch pin of any proper English breakfast, baked beans. Yes, baked beans, the kind that most Americans would eat only with barbecue. Thus fortified and having gained confidence after a day of driving with no life-threatening injuries sustained, we set off to see a very different facet of England and its long history: its pre-historical and Roman heritage. We had high hopes, and the sites did not disappoint.
Few landmarks in the world are as instantly recognizable as our first stop, Stonehenge. Dating back some 5000 years, its precise function still remains shrouded in mystery, though it clearly had some astronomical purpose and was related to the solstices, as well as being an important religious site. Catherine and I arrived ten minutes before opening and hence before the tourists hordes had descended. We did, not, however, manage to evade the rain. Even so, the grandeur of this ancient monument was not diminished. Situated atop a hill affording stunning vistas of the Salisbury plain, our audio tour traced the steps that would have been taken by those approaching the site thousands of years ago, and what might have transpired once they arrived. The sense of awe evoked by such a structure is almost ineffable.
Our tour of pre-historic England continued with a stop at Silbury Hill, about 16 miles from Stonehenge. This man-made earth mound rises to 134 feet, making it the largest burial mound from all of pre-historic Europe. From here it was a fifteen-minute walk (by this time the rain had let up) to West Kennet Long Barrow, a religious site even older than Stonehenge. Catherine and I were able to climb into the tomb, and I am glad to report that she let me back out. (There have been times in the car when she might have decided differently.) Since one has to park on the side of the road and trek several minutes from there to get to West Kennet, this too was uncluttered with tourists. The solitude, grey skies, and chilly breeze provided an apt ambiance. Back in the car and farther up the road was our last visit from this time period, this one to Avebury. This covered hundreds of acres and included as many stones, often surrounded by grazing goats. Despite the large number of stones and its expansive coverage, this did not quite compare to the splendor of Stonehenge or, in our judgment, West Kennet.
From pre-history we travelled to ancient history, specifically to Bath, so named because of its . . . baths. The mineral hot springs (116 degrees F) led the Romans to build a complex of bath houses and temples here around 100 AD. All of this, on the far flung western edge of their territory. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Bath was a magnet for the well-heeled and affluent, and the Georgian architecture (all built in Bath limestone) shows it. We toured the ancient Roman bath house, which felt more like a Roman circus because of the unruly tourists. From there we went to the Museum of Costume and Assembly Rooms. As I was in a stupefied daze for most of this, I cannot tell you what precisely was here, but judging from its name and the ubiquity of clothes in the building, I am reasonably confident that it had something to do with the history of fashion, and Catherine has confirmed this for me. Here is a part of Bath as Jane Austen would have seen it.
I am typing this on Sunday morning as Catherine tours the Jane Austen Center here in Bath. Because our laptop is not interfacing with the wireless connections at the various B&B's at which we are staying, these posts will likely become less frequent and more concise. As for the recent events in the UK, Catherine and I are mostly in the backwoods now, and will not be returning to London at all. We hope all is well on the other side of the Atlantic.
No comments:
Post a Comment