England -- Windsor

 

Windsor hosts one of the major castles of the kings and queens of England. It has been the seat of the Crown since 1066 when William the Conqueror became king of England after the Battle of Hastings. It started out as a timber castle and eventually was built with stone.

 All royal residences were built on rivers so that the sovereign could travel easily, especially if his/her life were in danger. Windsor Castle is no different. It borders the Thames River, which is upstream from London.

 Typically, the British monarch resides at Buckingham Palace during the week and then retreats to Windsor on weekends. Although the monarch lives in these palaces, they are not theirs. They are state-owned. 

We did not go inside the castle because of the long lines and our limited time in the village. We just looked at it from the outside. However, when I took a business trip to London in 2008, I went on a tour that did go inside Windsor (as well as the Stonehenge and Oxford University). The soldiers in their bearskin helmets and red and black uniforms put on a parade demonstration, and it was most enjoyable--a kind of anglophile delight. On that tour the bus also passed by Ascot, where the exclusive horse races are held. I first heard of Ascot as a young girl listening to the musical "My Fair Lady". In the film, one of the

extraordinary "dance" scenes was at Ascot where the people dressed up in their very best outfits, met each other, sipped tea, and watched the races. The women wore huge hats and moved together in step without colliding into each other. The original play by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw called "Pygmalion" is all about English class status, a very important cultural theme in this country. 

 I enjoyed watching this policewoman direct traffic at the castle's exit. Loved her cape and her enthusiasm.

 Windsor is a get-away place that families visit on the weekends. One of the first things visitors see after crossing an elevated bridge from the parking lot is a replica of Queen Victoria's 19th century train.

 The train transported the Queen between Windsor and London beginning on June 13, 1842. During her long reign, from 1837 to 1901, Victoria traveled by train dozens of times, which was quite adventurous considering  that train travel was relatively new and dangerous at the time. Below is her coat of arms and its name inscribed on the side.

 

 

 

Queen Victoria's presence is also depicted on this statue in front of one of the corners of the castle. She overlooks the marketplace.

Windsor is filled with shops, cafés, and restaurants, many of which play on the theme of the royal family. Other shops just have interesting names.Very British indeed!

 

 

This building leans to the left a bit and visitors are anxious to take photos where they are holding up the buildng. This woman was a part of a group of Brazilians who were visiting England.

Windsor is a pleasant little village full of history. Walking down its narrow streets is both interesting and fun as they have a very British flavor.

 

 On the serious side, the Royal Family was still in transition after Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. A slab of the street acknowledged her reign by designating it as the Queen's Walkway.

 

The Guildhall goes back to 1518. It is the earliest surviving government building in Windsor. It was first built in 1369 as a marketplace and town hall. The erection of the present hall was started in 1687, under the direction of Sir Thomas Fitz. After he died, Christopher Wren (1632-1723), a famous and talented British architect completed the project. It is supported by stone columns on its perimeter, but the city fathers were worried that the columns could not support the weight of the building. They wanted additional pillars on the interior of the overhang. Wren disagreed but put in the additional columns--that did not touch the ceiling. This story is a reputed legend, but it makes for rich architectural gossip. 

Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including what is regarded as his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710. 

Wren's architectural style was influenced by 1st century Roman architect Vitruvius and the classical works of English architect Inigo Jones. After traveling to Paris he studied French baroque and met Italian Baroque architect Gianlorenzo Bernini. He typically used baroque ideas with classical restraint and influenced Georgian architecture in England and the American colonies.

Since 1974, the guildhall has been used by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council for ceremonies and committee meetings. On April 9, 2005, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were married here and on December 21, 2005, Sir Elton John and David Furnish were married in one of the first same sex civil partnership ceremonies of England. On March 12, 2011, Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Windsor and Royal Borough Museum in the Guildhall.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Although a whirlwind tour doesn't allow much depth into the culture or even the places you visit, it does provide a sense of where things are. Meeting new people on the tour is another plus. Generally, I associate with those who sit around me on the bus and then meet up with them in the town we visit and at meals. They come from many different places. Our tour included Americans, Indians, Indonesians, Canadians, Malaysians, Singaporians, and Australians. Traveling alone allows me to mingle with others more easily--and to take the occasional break from the group. In the meantime, the benefit of having a tour company arrange hotels, meals, and transportation as well as to provide background about the places we see is worth the price of the tour.

 

Resources

 Windsor Guildhall -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Guildhall 

"The Queen" Locomotive -- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-queen-locomotive-windsor-england   

 Christopher Wren -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren

England -- Bath

 

We left Cardiff around 9 a.m. and headed back to England, to Bath, a short journey of about an hour and a half. We crossed the Severn Estuary, which creates the border between Wales and England. It runs for 160 miles from the Dee estuary, in the north, to the Severn estuary in the south. It is a treacherous body of water to cross at low tide because of its marshland. 

People have lived in this area for thousands of years. Alfred the Great was the first to unite all the kingdoms in this area, and he is credited with founding England. He was deposed by the Vikings but managed to fight back. 

The County of Somerset is part of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex. The rolling hills of Somerset are very fertile. They form a deep valley for the Avon River. The Avon is a tributary of the Thames River that passes through London. Bath was a fording point across the Avon River and as a result became a trading post.

The Mendip Hills are largely composed of carboniferous limestone, which is quarried at several sites. Ash and maple woodlands cover the area and provide habitat for a range of flora and fauna. These were great hunting grounds and they provided an east-west trade route to London.

 

Bath, a small town in southwestern England, has been known and named for the baths the Romans built there in 60 CE. They were fed by hot springs. 

Bath is located along the Avon River. Bath Abbey was founded in the 7th century and the town became a religious center. The building was rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century, as claims were made for the curative properties of water from the hot springs, Bath became popular as a spa town in the Georgian era.  

The hot sulfurous spring there were seen as magical as well as spiritual by the Britons who worshipped Nature. They had restorative powers to heal the sick. The earliest account of this is in the 5th century. Venerable Bede (673-735), a monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles, wrote about it in one of the first histories of the Britons. 

There is also a story about Prince Bladat, the son of King Lear, who had an itch and rash. He was banished to live in the wild forest. One day, he was sitting on a rock and he saw a herd of swine looking pretty crusty. They rolled in the mud of the hot spring and got better. So, he tried it himself and he recovered from his skin disease. He later became king. This story went as far as Greece because the Britons had traded with cities on the Mediterranean for thousands of years.

In the first century C.E., the Roman came here and discovered the hot springs. They liked to bath so this region became a resort for them--a break from the cold, wet, and unfriendly climate.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 Bath was a medieval town. In the 18th century, science and new discoveries encouraged people to return to ancient classical values. So they tore down the city and copied Italian neo-classical architecture, which is called Paladian style. (The White House in Washington, D.C. follows this same style.) John Nash (1752-1835),  was one of the foremost British architects of the Georgian and Regency eras, during which he was responsible for the design, in the neoclassical and picturesque styles, of many important areas of London. He designed Buckingham Palace and the Marble Arch. 

He designed the new Bath with the idea that the city is "a work of art" and shouldn't be over-crowded. He used yellow limestone for building materials, built wide streets, and used symmetry. The bridge over the Avon River (top photo) is based on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Consequently, he made Bath the most fashionable city in Europe. Many people flocked there to enjoy its ambience and to be seen.

A river walkway (left) and a park further down the road with mansions in the background.

The Circus (the Royal Crescent) is an example of Georgian architecture begun in 1754 and completed in 1768. The name comes from the Latin 'circus', which means a ring, oval or circle.The Circus was designed by John Wood the Elder, although he died less than three months after the first stone was laid. His son, John Wood the Younger completed the building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also concert halls, lectures, and poetry readings held in Bath. It was all about leisure and pleasure. It was a place where the wealthy British aristocrats went, especially for matchmaking. Bath was a retreat from troubles at home and a fresh start after indulging in the beauty of the town's spas and parks. It was also a place the wealthy merchant class went to marry off their children to the gentry class that had high social status but not necessarily any money. 

My exposure to Bath was through two women: Jane Austen and Chaucer's Wife of Bath. It was exciting to be in a place I'd read about. I didn't know what to expect.

 

Jane Austen (1775–1817) wrote six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Two of her novels have scenes in Bath. Her plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favorable social standing and economic security. She used biting irony, along with realism and social commentary.

 

Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales (1405-10) made one of his major characters the Wife of Bath, a somewhat loose and sensual woman who was married five times. She complains about the double standards of men and women who do the same. Women were identified not by their social status and occupations, but solely by their relations with men: a maiden, a spouse or a widow – capable only of child-bearing, cooking and other "women's work".

 

Bath Abbey

Although it started out as a convent in 676, in the 8th century, Bath Abbey was founded as a Benedictine monastery. Its community was committed to worshipping God, justice for the poor, and hospitality to all people. The Abbey is now a parish church still guided by the same values, says a pamphlet.

The Abbey is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country. It is the third and final style of medieval Gothic architecture in England. It is characterized by an emphasis on vertical lines. The style began to emerge in about 1330.

 

A very unique structure on the exterior flanking the main doors was Jacob's Ladder with angels attempting to climb it to reach God. This was a first for me--and quite a delightful first. Some of them make it, and some of them don't.

                                      

 

As a Gothic church, light was everything. The light in this church was brilliant as the sanctuary and the surrounding narthex stained glass windows let the light flood in. It was a magnificent display of color!

The ceiling was most amazing. Its lace-like design reminded me of a church in Sicily, only this ceiling was more symmetrical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The talents of the artisan's wood carvings of the pulpit and monks' stalls were carefully preserved and on display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The British seem to like putting graves in the floors of their cathedrals and abbeys. This one was no different. Here are a few of the older gravestones.

And a few interesting monuments to the dead as well.

The Tomb of Jane, wife of Sir William Waller who commanded the Parliamen-tary forces against the Royalists under Sir Ralph Hopton at the Battle of Lansdown in 1643. Sir William Waller erected the tomb to the memory of his wife and made provision for his own burial here. He was, however, buried in the Tothill Street Chapel, Westminster.
 

 

 

Finally, a plaque commemorated the visit of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on August 9, 1973.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bath is certainly a wonderful place to visit! It's worth coming back to and indulging in some of its pleasures, like the hot springs, the parks, and the interesting shops. One shop I visited but didn't photograph was the meat pie shop. Our guide highly recommended this taste of the local food for our lunch. After all, our bus was waiting to take us to Windsor, our last stop on this miles-long tour.  

 

 

Resources

Andrew Speed, guide for Costsaver Travel Company

Jane Austen -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen

The Wife of Bath -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wife_of_Bath%27s_Tale

Bath -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset

Perpendicular Gothic -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Gothic_architecture#Perpendicular_Gothic