In May and Early June 2013 we again spent some time in the UK on our way to Russia. First stop London. On the surface London seems quite like Australia. Walking about the streets; buying meals; travelling on public transport; staying in hotels; watching TV; going to a play; visiting friends; shopping; going to the movies in London seems mundane compared to travel to most other countries.  Signs are in English; most people speak a version of our language, depending on their region of origin. Electricity is the same and we drive on the same side or the street.  Bott Wendy and I have lived in London in previous lives, so it's like another home.

But look as you might, nowhere in Australia is really like London.

 

London

 

Like Paris from the Eiffel Tower; it is possible to get a panoramic view of London from the giant Ferris wheel at the south end of Westminster Bridge known as the London Eye. 

 

The London Eye

 

Designed with tensioned spokes like a push bike wheel it carries viewers to a height of 132m; the equivalent height of a building of around 30 stories.  This very modest height works uniquely well in London where the surrounding buildings are low-rise. 

 

Parliament and Westminster Abbey from the London Eye

 

The engineering is interesting.  Opposing main drives, either side, engage with the rim via rubber tyres.

 

Eye drive arrangement

drive detail

 

The viewing capsules are not kept horizontal by gravity, or perhaps by a circumferential cable, as one might expect, but by local electric motors rotating each capsule independently. 

 

Eye Viewing Capsule

 

I was intrigued to think what would happen if any of these failed.  Customers would be walking up the walls; literally.

 

It is popular to single out the English weather as the major difference.  Actually Sydney gets over twice as much rain as London but the London rain is lighter and more frequent.  Nor is London particularly cold.  It typically pleasantly warm in summer; comparable to spring or autumn in Sydney. 

 

Lunch on The Serpentine

 

But even in mid summer the sun is more than 17 degrees lower in the sky at midday and, as a consequence is less bright.  And as London is further north than anywhere in Australia is south, a summers day is a lot longer than even in Tasmania.  Summer shadows are longer and less intense and the days seem very long and mild; while winter days are very short; cold and often wet; and therefore significantly more miserable. 

You can get a summer sunburn in London; but only if you really try.

 

A London Summer's day

 

This means the built environment in northern cities needs to be quite different to that in say Spain; or Australia.   

 

'Whenever I walk in a London Street I'm ever so careful to watch my feet...' 

 

Although there are many place names in common, climatic and demographic factors, together with the relatively elevated and rugged geography in Sydney, compared to London's flood plane,  meant that  Paddington; Lewisham; Richmond; Windsor or St Albans around Sydney would never properly mimic the London of fond memory to those who named them.   Similarly, Newcastle; Wallsend; and Jesmond on the Hunter in no way mimic their namesakes on the Tyne.

Architecture responds to climate and the natural environment and has had a major ongoing influence on in both countries.   In a similar street to the one above in Australia most shops would all have fixed awnings to the curb to protect the shoppers from the sun and the rain.

Greater opportunity to spend time outdoors encouraged the traditional Australian love of the 'quarter acre block' that has meant greater urban sprawl; less 'people friendly' inner urban areas and less efficient mass transit. 

Although many of the older buildings in London pre-date European settlement in Australia, much of the London we admire was built or re-built at the 'height of empire' in Victorian times or later.

Today Sydney is bigger, and a lot wealthier, than London was in mid Victorian times but the demographics are dramatically different; particularly in the distribution of wealth.  

Even today population densities are much higher in London than anywhere in Australia; and distribution of wealth remains less equitable.  Despite some huge houses seen on Kevin McCouds Grand Designs the British, on average, have the smallest dwellings in the developed world; whereas Australians now have the largest.  

 

International House Sizes
Countries	All Houses (m2)	New Houses	Family size avg.	m2/per capita
Australia		206	2.5	82
United States		203	2.5	81
New Zealand/Canada		176	2.5	70
Denmark/Luxembourg	125-109	101-137	2.2	54
Belgium/Netherlands/France/Germany	80-98	109-126	2.3-2.5	49
Japan	95	132	2.8	47
Sweden	90	83	2.1	40
Spain/Austria/Ireland/Italy/Portugal	83-91	82-97	2.5-2.7	34
United Kingdom	85	76	2.3	33

Sources: OECD Family database and Demographia (sources: Japan Statistical Yearbook, European Housing 2002,
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canadian Home Builders Association, Infometrics)

 

This is immediately apparent when shown to your room in a London hotel.

 

The Art Galleries

 

 

London, like Paris and New York, is famous for its many public galleries and private collections. 

In London the Tate and Tate Modern have more recent works as well as a large collection of the works of Turner; while the National Gallery has a more classical collection; although there is some overlap.  The National Portrait Gallery has what the name implies.  Many artists represented in these collections also have works in Australian public collections, so it is interesting to see their other works close at hand and to compare techniques and subject matter. 

The Tate holds a number of English pre-Raphaelites and their Royal Academy contemporaries. These were also enormously popular with nineteenth century Australian collectors. 

Australian artists have long studied in London and Paris and some English artists made their home in Australia so we find numerous artists of the period in common between English and Australian collections.

 

 

The Queen of Sheba before Soloman E J Poynter 1890 - in Sydney

The Lady of Shalott John William Waterhouse 1888 - in London

 

Amongst the pre-Raphaelites was Solomon J Soloman's Birth of Eve that until recently hung in the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney (as part of the Schaeffer Collection); where I thought it still was.  To my surprise there it was in London in the Tate; so I presume that it has been sold, back to where it was painted.  But it was like running into someone you know.

Birth of Eve in Sydney in 2011

Birth of Eve in London in 2013

 

It is also interesting these days to see works by often more contemporary British artists not represented in Australia.  Australian curators and trustees have a more active domestic art scene to buy from and seem to look more towards America and Asia for overseas acquisitions these days.

Here are some more contemporary images from the Tate Modern and the Tate; not all British.

 

Epstein's Jacob and the Angel

 

I can't see an Epstein sculpture without remembering the patently untrue but amusing limerick:

There's an extraordinary family named Stein There's Gert and there's Ep and there's Ein Gert's poetry's bunk Ep's sculpture is junk And nobody understands Ein

 

Unfortunately, as I have complained elsewhere, several galleries in London prohibit photographs.  But you can see many of them 'on line', many in Google's Art-Project, in much better definition than you might be able to get by photographing them without optimal lighting.

Edinburgh is home to the Scottish National Gallery collection;  Again there are resonances with Australian collections.  I spent several happy hours there and was pleased to be allowed to take photographs.   This is a brief snapshot:

 

 

Two Rembrandts; he certainly was prolific.  He seems to be represented in almost every major collection including several in Russia and Australia; as is Monet.  And you may notice that Rodin's The Kiss is unexpectedly in Scotland.   It's on loan from the Tate in London.

 

 

The Museums

 

 

London's museums are magnificent; particularly those that were built at the height of Empire.  The Natural History Museum; the V&A; and the British Museum are all enormous even by American Standards and each have additional annexes and related buildings outside of London. 

Perhaps the most spectacular is the Natural History Museum. 

 

Natural History Museum

 

 

The Central Hall features a statue of Charles Darwin. This was restored to this position to celebrate the bicentennial of Darwin's birth in 1809 and the publication of his The Origin of the Species in 1859; arguably the most influential scientific book ever written. 

The museum has an illustrious history; initially it was simply an attempt to collect and catalogue every animal and plant on the planet.  This collection has serendipitously supported ground breaking research across almost every aspect of biology, anthropology and zoology; with special expertise in the study of insects, parasites and tropical diseases.

The museum has expanded since I last visited.  The architecturally modern Darwin Centre annex was completed in 2009 with new laboratories and the latest equipment for DNA analysis and genetic research.  I didn't see the labs but they reportedly house some 200 research scientists and significantly increases the capacity and capabilities of the institution.

Like the smaller but similar natural history museums in Sydney; Melbourne; Canberra; and even in Darwin; its public face is about teaching children about nature; in the context of the evolution of life on Earth. 

I'm not sure that it does this better than a smaller more concise explanation - the gallery in Darwin, for example, is most informative.  In London I find myself distracted by the sheer majesty of the building and the inevitably disjointed nature of the exhibits.  This leads to pockets of childish excitement, for example around the dinosaurs, but little or no interest in the science or in the actual progress of evolution; even when it came to the development of hominids; including modern humans.

 

Neanderthal - informative but it had no audience - they were all at the dinosaurs

 

 

 

Science Museum

 

Around the corner is the Science Museum. 

The Science Museum features applied science; from the industrial revolution until today.  For a period Britain was the principal player in the commercialisation of new scientific knowledge; helping to make the British Empire pre-eminent for much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  The central hall features a large red working steam engine - double expansion - of the kind that once drove the lay shafts in factories. 

 

The big steam engine

 

There are also models interestingly demonstrating the development of the steam engine and its increasing efficiency.  But again I was slightly disappointed; Britain is the home of so many original scientific, technological and industrial breakthroughs and I wanted the World's best. 

I couldn't help comparing it to Sydney's Powerhouse that has at least a dozen working steam engines demonstrating this progress; starting with a huge Boulton and Watt engine all the way through to a (non-working) Parsons turbo-alternator that once lit the street lamps in Sydney's Hyde Park;  almost all of them originating in England.

The London museum has an original Parsons turbo-alternator prototype and an original Whittle gas turbine aircraft engine.  Very nice, but the curators seem to be prouder of the provenance of the objects than of the science they incorporated and proved practical. 

These two alone are singular British inventions that now provide the world with around 90% of our electricity; and power most of the world's aircraft.  I found the descriptions accompanying the objects quite inadequate to explain the science; or the enormous importance to society of each breakthrough. 

 

Charles Parson's Prototype Steam-turbine and Alternator Set 1884

 

So I set about looking for information about ground-breaking British research in nuclear power generation; her position as the second nuclear capable country and a significant contributor to the US programs.  It's a big museum but I couldn't find it; nor any reference to Britain's successful atomic bomb tests in Australia.  

I did like the rocket engines developed for the British 'Blue Streak' ICBM program at Woomera. Blue Streak technology was later used to carry Australia's only fully domestically launched satellite.  But the public seemed more interested in space program objects donated by NASA; similar to those in Sydney and elsewhere; than in the British inventions.

Don't get me wrong, the collection is unique and the Museum is an Aladdin's Cave of technology; its just that I wanted more science and practical demonstration.  In many cases the objects are actual prototypes built by the very hands of the inventors; or one-off  'originals' like the actual model used by Watson and Crick to define the DNA double-helix; Essen & Parry's first successful atomic clock (based on excited caesium atoms) without which GPS navigation would not be possible; and Stephenson's 'Rocket' - the first practical steam locomotive.

 

 Stephenson's Rocket - the original steam locomotive 1829

 

The National Railway Museum annex in York, discussed later, has a number of the successors showing the, largely British, development of this technology.

At the moment there is an excellent educational exhibit entitled 'Who am I' to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Human Genome Project.  This explores aspects of the colony of cells that is us: evolution; genetics; inheritance; growth; environment; disease; phobias; and brain structure; all the way through to genetic profiling; all in simple everyday language. Brilliant! 

 

Who am I - exploring how our genetics and brain structure combine to create our unique identity

 

But on the top level the interactive exhibition on the environment left me cold and was almost devoid of an audience.  This is a pity as it must have cost a fortune.   

 

The interactive environment exhibit

 

 

 

 

Victoria and Albert Museum

 

Across the road is the V&A.

The Victoria and Albert Museum known to all as the V&A bills itself as the world’s greatest museum of art and design.  It fills that niche between high art and low engineering and technology but much of it can be summed up in a single word: 'fashion'.  While for some this is everything in life, I need to take it in small doses. 

 

V&A Sculpture Gallery - high art?

 

 

I am impressed by skill  in craft and often more amazed at what people spend their time making than in the object itself.  I'm reminded in a ten foot model of Sydney Harbour Bridge I once saw made, in fine detail, entirely out of matches.  The V&A has a simply marvellous collection of lace doilies and old clothes.

Fashion is often given as the explanation for the completely useless objects some people will buy; perhaps they are used clothes once owned by someone famous; a doodad to put on a mantelpiece or to decorate a hallway; or perhaps even a small square of printed paper, once stuck to an envelope or package as evidence that a fee had been paid for its delivery to somewhere else.

 

Another part of the V&A

 

 

The V&A had a massive tribute to David Bowie pop and fashion icon when I visited.  But I was most intrigued by those pieces that drifted above craft into art; and those that fell below, into the sordid world of practical engineering and industrial design or architecture.  I particularly like the tea rooms.

 

V&A Tea Rooms

 

There is a meta-data thing going on.  How do the curators decide what goes into the V&A and what goes into say the Science Museum, the British Museum or an Art Gallery?  For example the Science museum has collection of historical industrial designs like tea-making alarm clocks and 'neck' massagers.  

 

 

They are complex mechanisms and mass produced; but so are the clocks that seem to make it into the V&A.  In fact a lot of things in the V&A are mass produced, particularly ceramics, like Spode cups and saucers.  If ceramics are hand made and/or very old  they seem to be in the British Museum. If sculpture is new and unique it seems to be in the Tate.

I suspect it is a class thing.  Fashion is something indulged in by people who have gone beyond achieving simple survival or who have time on their hands.  While it is increasingly indulged in by dependent young adults and those on welfare; it has traditionally been the province of the truly rich and aimless.  Thus the V&A is a repository for those things that once denoted 'class': certainly not alarm-clock tea-makers.  What are servants for?   As for the other: they are probably classless; but best kept hidden in the draw beside the bed.

 

 

British Museum

 

Perhaps the most interesting of all, the British museum chronicles the development of human civilisation.  It houses a vast archaeological collection.  Although there are many such collections worldwide; in New York, Paris, Moscow, Cairo and so on;  this is generally considered to be the greatest.   Amongst its treasures are the Rosetta Stone that enabled the decoding of Egyptian Hieroglyphics and thus thousands of years of invaluable records; many of which are also held here. 

 

 

The Rosetta Stone

 

This knowledge was lost when early Christians took over the temples of the older religion; and reputedly put to death its priests.  They also set about 'defacing' images of the older deities as can be seen in many sites in Egypt today; one of the early expressions of iconoclasm that has gripped the Christian religion from time to time.

A bust of Ramesses II (Ozymandias) is also here;

 

Ozymandias

 

as are the disputed Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens.  These were legally purchased from the Turks with a removal cost of around £70,000 when Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire. They formed part of the rubble, mostly from the frieze surrounding the Parthenon, after it had been used to store explosives and had blown up. 

The British say that they were abandoned and unlike the missing pieces, no longer surviving, were saved from certain destruction for all humanity.  After all, by now most Europeans are the legitimate descendents of Mediterranean people who lived in Greece two and a half thousand years ago. The Greeks say they are stolen national treasure.

Obviously there is a principle here too.  If the marbles were returned what precedent would this set for the remainder of the vast collection taken from other countries, including Egyptian mummies and stone age artefacts?  And there are large archaeological collections in France; Germany; the US; Russia; and even Australia.

 

Elgin Marbles (447–438 BCE)

 

In this one museum you can trace the development of human culture and technology from the stone age before writing; to the iron age and the time of epic poets. 

The archaeology reveals development of technology and increasingly complex social structures based on specialisation; driven by competition for territory and competing land use and shows, in particular, the development of religious ideas through increasingly complex religious structures, temples and mausoleums. 

 

 

The Queen

 

Acts of the British Parliament guided its six Australian colonies from local suffrage through to Federation in 1901.  Australia therefore traces its legal and political system; and many of its institutions back to Britain.  To this day we rely on the British monarch to act as our nominal Head of State; appointing the State Governors and the Australian Governor General, on the recommendation of the various governments, as de facto Heads of State. 

 

Government House Sydney - the closest thing to a palace

 

This will continue until a mandate is achieved, requiring a majority of electors in both the individual States and the Commonwealth, to arrive at an alternative method of appointing State Governors; and a President to replace the Governor General.   Republicans can't agree on either: an elected; or indirectly appointed head of State; or on the powers that might be added to, or removed from, the position of President. 

I for one, certainly don't want to see yet another politician, with yet another competing electoral mandate, in the job of de facto monarch.  A practical alternative might be a US style 'separation of powers' but that would require excising the Executive from the Parliament; and 'hell will freeze over' before the various Australian Parliaments and their majority leaders (Premiers and Prime Minister) give up their Ministers of State; together with control of the Public Service and executive power.  British and New Zealand and Canadian Republicans face the same problem. 

So Betty remains our Queen de jure into the foreseeable future, with Chuck and Will; and little Georgy Porgy to follow.  We can still get excited about royal weddings; and babies; and see the trooping of the colours; or the changing of the guard; or the presence of the royal standard over Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle or Holyrood Palace; and flotillas down the Thames; all relevant to us as well.

 

The Mall; Buckingham Palace; Holyrood Palace; Edinburgh Castle

 

 

Touring in Britain

 

 

 

On this most recent trip to England and Scotland, recognising that but for its history we would not exist, we organised our itinerary around points of historical significance.  And shoe shopping.    

The sites that provided the milestones of our journey included castles, historic houses and cathedrals. In England and Scotland these are often rooted in the 12th through to the 17th centuries.  Shoe shopping took us to the Yorkshire Dales; and all the way back to the 20th century.

 

Shoe shopping in Yorkshire

 

 

Scotland

 

After spending a few days in London we travelled up to Edinburgh by train.  

A new highlight in the City is the now de-commissioned  Royal Yacht Britannia.  We spent several happy hours touring the vessel and had lunch in the dining room on the top deck. 

 

Royal Yacht Britannia

 

No doubt one reason for decommissioning her was the obvious cost; together with her age and the greater convenience and economy of air travel.  During her service she was passed-off as a standby hospital ship, allowing her cost to be absorbed into the defence budget.   It was rather mind boggling.  Britannia was generally captained by a Rear Admiral or a Vice Admiral, commanding 20 officers and 220 'yachstmen'; some of whom were also bandsmen.

 

Bandsmen's quarters - a cut above

 

She has a rather beautiful engine room and is driven by two sets of geared steam turbines each set comprising a high pressure turbine and a larger low pressure turbine. Although she would have been faster with three bladed propellers four blades were selected to provide a more comfortable ride. 

 

LP Turbine in the foreground

 

Unlike most naval ships she is stabilised.  But the stabilisers can be withdrawn if she needs to put on speed; and typical naval technical precautions were built-in against a possible need to go into combat; or an attack. 

Although the ratings were packed in like sardines this was regarded as a prime posting compared to other Ships in the navy. Nevertheless, a strict naval hierarchy was maintained.  The ratings mess was no bigger than that of the officers; they got beer (no rum anymore).  The petty officers had a smaller mess with beer or spirits and the officers got spirits. 

 

Officers

Petty Officers

 

The officers entertained members of the royal family in their dining room and got to play a variety of mess games, some involving stuffed toys; occasionally with members of the Family. 

 

Officer's Dining room

 

The royal family generally used the yacht on state visits but some seem to have amounted to holidays. Remarkably the Queen and Duke had bedrooms on opposite sides of the ship; both with ordinary single beds.

 

The Queen's Bedroom

Prince Phillip's Bedroom

 

But when Chuck and Di sailed to Australia they had a double bed installed; that still remains.

 

Charles and Diana's Bed - I'm resisting saying anything

 

The entertainment areas are surprisingly modest; as are the private apartments.

 

Drawing Room	State Dining Room
Boat Deck Bar	Private Foyer

 

An armoured Rolls Royce is still on board, mainly because they have to dismantle part of the ship to get it out of the garage, which is either too small; or the car is too large.

 

Earlier, we had spent most of a day touring Edinburgh Castle.

 

The ramparts of Edinburgh Castle

 

It is fair to say that no Australian political leader has ever lived in a castle or is ever likely too.  Australians have never waged real war on each other over territory or leadership.  The country and its coastline is vast and potential invaders would have no difficulty by-passing any fixed structure.  

Australians have a wide range of disparate religious traditions and beliefs; and as a founding principle: no established religion. 

So we have no castles or ancient forts; no grand houses or palaces on the scale of those in England; and even our cathedrals, mosques, and so on, are relatively modest.

So its easy to be amazed at the scale of these edifices across Europe and, in particular, the scale of investment of social capital invested in religion and maintaining the elite, at a time when the great majority of people had so little; and when the average life expectancy was less than 40 years. 

The Scottish elite was generally more circumspect than most, building relatively modest structures; and the Scots remain proud of their relative egalitarianism and independence.

It's amusing, even today, to hear Scotsmen going on about invasions from the South; and then to cross the border and hear Englishmen going on about invasions from the North. 

Scotland is the last settled area of British isles.  As the ice covering Scotland and Scandanavia melted about 9,000 years ago the sea level began to rise eventually cutting off and separating the British isles and defining the present coastlines.  But this took thousands of years and a southern part of the present North Sea was still land until quite recently. This is known to archaeologists as Doggerland and remained as an island between Britain and Denmark until just 5,000 years ago when it is possible that it was finally swept away by a tsunami. 

When the northern ice withdrew, rich deep alluvial soils were left filling many of the low lying valleys throughout which slow moving rivers meander; ideal for agriculture and grazing; but heavily scoured, barren highlands.

 

Earlsburn windfarm Scotland - on a glaciated promontory near Sterling
(annual production: 93 GWh; capacity factor: 35%)

 

As in other parts of Europe, the less hospitable lands in the north of Britain were initially occupied by herdsmen who supplemented their incomes by making raids on the settlements of sedentary farmers who fortified villages and then cities.  Cities developed into manufacturing and trading centres; employing writing and mathematics to support these functions.  As bronze age technology gave way to the iron age, and the Romans began to occupy northern Europe, these raiding tribes began to find employment as contract warriors. 

The Scottish highlands had occupied by Pictish and Scottish herding and hunting tribes with strong fighting traditions.  According to the Romans, and modern archaeologists, British tribes followed the religious traditions of Celtic polytheism (Druid priests and so on) that may, in places, have embraced human sacrifice.  This animistic religion (worshiping plants animals and natural phenomena) was practiced across modern France Germany Poland and Russia; as far as the east as the Black Sea; and south into a large area of the Iberian Peninsular.

 

Wandsworth Shield - a bronze 2nd century BCE (Iron Age) - Celtic shield found in the Thames at Wandsworth
(source: Wikipedia commons - from the British Museum)

 

 

 

Scottish Enlightenment

 

Religious unrest and dissent was to set the scene for the English and Scottish Reformations.  The resulting political turmoil and ultimately the Enlightenment and the Scientific revolution.

After failing to persuade the Church of the need to correct these errors of doctrine, in 1517 Luther published his 'Ninety-Five Theses'.   At first he was ignored by the Vatican but upon publication the Theses they were almost instantly translated and distributed throughout Europe causing a sensation, particularly in Northern Europe. In both 1520 and 1521 the Church tried to make Luther recant; and then excommunicated him.  

Monastic Christianity had always valued asceticism (plain food, hair shirts and hard beds) and a life of prayer, contemplation and scholarship.  Scottish missionaries had even established monasteries in Germany. This was the background from which Martin Luther came.  Many Christians in Scotland and in England took up the Lutheran cause and a new schism began.  

The young Henry VIII was moved to write a refutation of Luther for which Pope Leo X conferred on him the title 'Defender of the Faith'; a title still used by the British monarchy today.  But Henry fell out with the Pope when he was refused a divorce.   With Protestant support he took the opportunity to use the old issue of the Church's refusal to repatriate the long disputed payments to seize Church lands in England.

Upon Henry's death his sickly young son Edward VI ruled for six years; during which time England became officially Protestant. But Edward died in 1553 and his half sister, the eldest daughter of Henry, raised a Roman Catholic force and sized the throne from their cousin Jane; who she had executed.  Mary re-established the English Church's affiliation with Rome and married Philip of Spain in 1554. 

The Protestants by this time had become numerous and objected violently; many becoming martyrs to the cause. 283 were executed, most by burning at the stake and some 800 wealthy families fled the country.  Mary gained the sobriquet 'Bloody Mary'.  After just five years, during which England was gripped by famine, Mary died and the throne passed to her sister Elizabeth I. 

Mary's tomb is in Henry VII Chapel at the far eastern end of Westminster Abbey; adjacent to those of her sister Elizabeth; and of Mary Queen of Scots. In death they lie together together; with Henry VII of England; Elizabeth of York; James I of England; Lady Margaret Beaufort; Edward VI of England; and Charles II of England. 

 

The cloisters of Westminster Abbey

 

Elizabeth tried to find an accommodation between the Catholics and Protestants; but was excommunicated by the Pope; and then suffered repeated Catholic attempts on her life; culminating in an attempted invasion by Philip of Spain; the Spanish Armada.  Under Elizabeth England recovered and then prospered; spectacularly defeating Philip's Holy Armada, with the help of terrible storms and the Atlantic currents, confirming to the faithful divine support for the Protestant position.

Meanwhile in Scotland, Elizabeth's cousin, the young, beautiful, tall (5' 11") and allegedly libidinous Mary Queen of Scots, a Roman Catholic, was having her own problems with the Protestants.  She had rather foolishly become implicated in the murder of her second husband and too soon afterwards took as her third husband one of the alleged assassins; who was thus thought to have been her lover.

The outcry that resulted forced her to abdicate in favour of her son and caused her to flee to England and to seek Elizabeth's protection; while her son, James VI, was taken to be brought up a Protestant.  Some 18 years later she became, irrefutably, implicated in one of the Roman Catholic plots on Elizabeth's life and was executed at the age of 44.

 

The site of the beheading Block within the Tower of London

 

In response to the Protestant threat the Roman Church began to reform itself, beginning at the Council of Trent (1545–1563) under Pius V, to remove some of its most egregious practices.  To differentiate itself from the Protestants the Roman Church gave increased prominence to 'Catholic Marian devotion'; known to Protestants as the 'Cult of Mary'. 

Images of the Virgin Mary (mother of Jesus) in art, together with depictions of the female form in general, had become increasingly popular during the Renaissance with their enthusiasm for the female figure. 

 

Renaissance allegorical art in Florence

 

But praying to, or through, Mary was an Eastern Christian tradition that had not been a strong feature of Latin Christianity.  Now Pius V standardised the 'Mysteries of the Rosary,' and its associated Marian devotions; and the Vatican was quick to attribute a Christian victory against the Muslims and the Battle of Lepanto (1571) to the intercession of Mary, through the medium of 'the rosary'. 

The rosary soon became a new devotional device often used to distinguish Catholics from Protestants. 

In Scotland there was immediate sympathy for Lutheran reformist ideas; together with those of  John Calvin.   Several acts of Parliament were passed in an attempt to stem the dissenters but in 1561 the Protestants led by John Knox succeeded in making Scotland officially Presbyterian; although other Protestants were tolerated.

 

St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh - Scotland’s largest Church

 

By this time large parts of northern Europe had also become Protestant.  Initial skirmishes in France and the German principalities and in the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain in the sixteenth century developed into an all out religious conflict in 1618 and lasting to 1648;  known as the The Thirty Years' War; one of the longest continuous wars in modern history.

 

Canongate Kirk - grave of Adam Smith

Mortification: penitential act against desire for sin

 

Although the official State religion was Protestant, in both England and Scotland some wealthy families and in particular, Highland clans, remained Catholic. This resulted in an attempt to put Charles Edward Stuart, Bonny Prince Charlie, onto the throne with the Jacobite uprising of 1745. 

The Jacobites consisted largely of Scottish Highlanders with some Lowlander, English, Irish and French Catholic support. 

They were repulsed at Sterling Castle.

 

Battlements at Sterling Castle

 

Then unsuccessfully besieged Edinburgh Castle.

 

Edinburgh Castle

 

Nevertheless, Charles set up Court in Edinburgh in Holyrood Palace at the other end of The Royal Mile. 

 

Holyrood Palace

 

The uprising ended in defeat at the Battle of Culloden the following year (1755).  There followed a bloody crack-down on Highland Catholics and those speaking the 'Irish language' - Gaelic.  This was known as the 'Harrying of the Glens' or the Highland Clearances.  At its peak thousands were killed or jailed; and over 1,000 were sold as slaves to the American Colonies. Cattle, sheep and deer were butchered, crops burned so that others starved. 

The troubles were brought to an end by the Napoleonic wars (1790–1815) when it was decided to raise the Highland Regiments to fight for Britain. During the Victorian era the Highland culture was romanticised; particularly thought the poetry of Walter Scott; stimulating a new enthusiasm for tartan; Highland Games and all things Scottish.

 

Walter Scott - amid his ornate monument dominating Princes St

 

Thus these once troublesome clansmen, who had repulsed 'all comers' since Roman times, were put to do what they did best; and became the loyalest of the loyal 'Soldiers of the Queen'.

It's hard to comprehend the influence of Roman Catholic and Protestant factions over the minds of the common people that fermented such passions as to result in successful calls to arms.  The political need to reduce the undue influence of Rome and the excessive economic influence of the monasteries is comprehensible.  But a disagreement about how a mutually believed-in deity should be worshiped was surely no grounds for going to war against one's neighbour.

I'm reminded of the war between the Big-Endians (who insisted boiled eggs should be broken at the larger end) and Little-Endians (who asserted the opposite) in Gulliver's Travels (1726).  Along with Jonathan Swift, independent thinkers of the day could only stand-back bemused.

In the late 17th and early18th centuries a period known as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason developed out of this consternation.  Thinkers, like John Locke in England and Voltaire and Rousseau in France, embraced religious scepticism and/or satirised conventional thinking; for example, that God may favour one side over another in battle.

Natural philosophers, like Isaac Newton, tried to find a new religious paradigm consistent with new scientific awareness and understanding.  German and American thinkers took up these new understandings.  Locke was very influential in the thinking of Thomas Jefferson in his framing of the United States Declaration of Independence.  Jefferson too is a principal figure of the Enlightenment; and rated by historians as one of the greatest of US presidents.

Prominent Scottish Enlightenment figures included the Scotsman David Hume (1711-1776) who in a series of seminal philosophical essays examined the rational (or irrational) basis for a belief in religion; and examined human nature and understanding; and philosophical method.  He is remembered as the father of empiricism and thus of modern scientific method.  Today Hume is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived.  I have previously written about Hume in more detail (follow this link).  

His statue sits on The Golden Mile in Edinburgh, loosely draped in the toga of a Greek philosopher; a garb that is singularly inappropriate in a city that is often frigidly cold, even in mid-summer. 

 

David Hume

 

On the other side of the street stands the more appropriately dressed Adam Smith; also an enlightenment philosopher and author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments; and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) that provided the foundation for modern economic analysis.  He is remembered as the father of modern Economics.

 

Adam Smith (1723-1790) - in the background is St Giles Cathedral - the High Kirk of the Presbyterian church

 

As I have discussed elsewhere, the Scottish Enlightenment was very influential on the early development of New South Wales and thus on the creation of the Nation of Australia.

In the 19th Century reason gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion, and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force; with renewed religiosity, mysticism, nationalism,  ultimately leading to Fascism; and setting the scene for the horrendous international conflicts that distinguished the first half of the twentieth century.  For a period, with the enthusiastic support of organised religion, the term 'enlightenment' became associated with the unfeeling; unemotional and anti-spiritual; and possibly even Communist. 

But by the mid-twentieth century most thinkers and philosophers had re-embraced enlightenment values, often under the banner Humanism.  These principles are reflected in the foundation values of the United Nations and in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), that strongly reflects the Jeffersonian enlightenment principles; mirroring, in some cases simply rewording, those set out in the US Declaration of Independence.

These include:

Article 18	Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19	Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

 

Yet somehow religious zealots continue to murder each other in contravention; and sometimes even resort to violence if someone criticises their beliefs; or their prophets.

 

 

Newcastle

 

After Edinburgh we travelled to Sterling and then down into England (via Hexham) to Newcastle upon Tyne; the City of my birth.  Our hotel, The Copthorne, was, still within our budget, one of the best we stayed in in England. 

We had only a day to see some of the points of interest and unfortunately there is now a large shopping mall at the top of Grey Street.  And we spent the day on foot when we should have used the car. 

So on the whole I left disappointed, having failed to show Wendy places I had previously enjoyed in the city; or to return to where my family had lived or worked.

Nevertheless we walked down along the river and I took some photographs of a few points of interest including the High Level Bridge and Tyne Bridge; that was Dorman Long & Co's miniature prototype for the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Tyne Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge

 

Dorman Long & Co - engineers of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

 

This has interested me since a boy.  My father often mentioned this relationship between Newcastle and Sydney and it was probably a factor in them choosing Sydney as our new home in 1948. I have talked about this elsewhere on this website.

Grey's Monument, reminiscent of Nelson's column, at the head of Grey and Grainger Streets is also of interest; as is the cute little Central Arcade nearby.

Grainger Street

Central Arcade

 

Charles Earl Grey was Prime Minister of Britain in the early 19th century and was noted for successful passage of the (Parliamentary) Reform Act; and for Catholic emancipation.

The foot of Grey's Monument

 

He is also famous for his affair with the Duchess of Devonshire; and for giving his name to Earl Grey tea.   He is memorialised in Newcastle because the Greys were/are a long-established Northumbrian family seated at Howick Hall, near Alnwick; about 50 km north of Newcastle.

Grey was succeeded as PM by Lord Melbourne, after whom Melbourne Australia is named. Melbourne's wife gained similar notoriety to the Duchess of Devonshire by having an affair with Lord Byron; described by his previous (also married) lover, Lady Caroline Lamb, as: 'mad, bad and dangerous to know'. 

 

Yorkshire and York

 

As mentioned above we had a 'shopping call' to make in the Yorkshire Dales to buy birthday shoes.   This required us finding our way to Grassington North Yorkshire, not a fast, direct or easy drive.  Having abandoned, as geographically impossible, the already booked and paid for 'bed and breakfast' on the coast, and arriving rather late, we had to find something 'on spec'.   In compensation, Grassington House was a picturesque hotel that, fortuitously, had a room and was very comfortable. 

  

 

Grassington House

 

While Wendy shopped I toured the village;

 

Grassington Village

 

 

then took the car out into the Dales for a closer look at the miles of dry stone walls. 

 

The Dales

 

 

 

 

From Grassington we drove to York; stopping in Harrogate to visit the historic Pump Room where people once 'took the waters' and submitted themselves to incredible quackeries in an attempt to cure a range of chronic and/or psychosomatic medical conditions.  It now serves as a museum with some interesting old bikes; in addition to a wide range of medical equipment that would better be located in a torture chamber; but that I was not allowed to photograph.

 

Pump Room at Harrogate

 

York has a number of highlights that make it well worth a visit and would have been nicer if it wasn't cold and often raining.  In particular; York Minster is a spectacular Gothic Cathedral and the National Rail Museum is very impressive and informative.  The Shambles in the old town is quaint and picturesque with, thankfully, some good snug coffee shops; against the weather.

 

A City Gate - York

 

We booked a B&B that was a short walking distance to both the Minster and the Museum; fortuitous because it is virtually impossible to drive in York. Just a few blocks can take half an hour. 

The Rail museum has examples of almost every steam locomotive ever made in the UK as well as examples of diesel-electric locos and, more modern, very fast electric trains. 

 

An impressive steam loco in the Rail Museum

 

The collection includes several Royal trains. 

Royal Train - Honi soit qui mal y pence (shame be to him who thinks evil of it) seems appropriate

 

I particularly liked one Royal carriage with a bathroom, complete with a conventional bath oriented lengthways along the carriage.  I imagined the water swilling back and forth as the train slowed or speeded up or as they went up or down a grade.   I imagined that if there was a sudden stop 'the King would be thrown out with the bathwater'.   I smiled inwardly for the rest of the day. 

In Roman times York, Eboracum, was capital of the province of Britannia Secunda and home to a large military contingent commanded by Constantius, father of Constantine the Great. 

Before becoming Roman Emperor in 324 Constantine escaped his political enemies in Rome by joining his father in York from where they jointly engaged in a campaign against the Picts in the north (Scotland).  Constantius held the title of Caesar and died in York in 306.  His son was first acknowledged Caesar in his place then proclaimed 'Augustus' in the same year. 

Adjacent to the Cathedral there is a Roman column dating from this period and a Bronze statue of Constantine stands adjacent to where he was proclaimed 'Augustus'.

 

Bronze statue of Constantine I

 

As a young man Constantine had studied Christianity, along with other religions, and was fluent in Greek and several other languages.  He was probably aware that Christianity had already reached Britain because Saint Alban, the first British martyr, was executed around the time that he arrived.   

In the Edict of Milan, in 311, Constantine (and Licinius) agreed that the Empire would stop persecuting Christians if they agreed to stop behaving unlawfully. 

Presumably they complied because in 325 he convened the First (ecumenical) Council of Nicaea charged with achieving Christian consensus; and eliminating dissent within the religion.  This Council is particularly important to Christians as it was when Christianity became a unified religion; and when it was finally decided that Jesus was one with God and the Holy Ghost; the original formulation of The Trinity.  It is the origin of the first Nicene Creed that thereafter defined a Christian.

Constantine's support for this unified version of Christianity resulted in it later being adopted as the official religion of the Empire; and the rest is history.  

Constantine is also remembered for moving the imperial centre to Byzantium; that thus came to be renamed New Rome then Constantinople.  In due course Constantinople would become the capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire that dominated the Mediterranean for over a thousand years; until the Muslims came along. 

For these reasons events in York were as important as those in Rome to the initial success and longevity of Christianity. 

After the Romans left in 410, York returned to polytheism under the Angles and then the Danes, the 'Great Heathen Army' who built the the Viking city of Jorvík on the site in the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century; giving the City its present name.  But it remained partially Christian and by the time of the Norman Invasion in 1066 Christianity was still practiced.  After the Norman invasion Christianity was fully reinstated; and the older religious practices became associated with witchcraft.

Then on March 16^th 1190 the incident that is called 'the darkest chapter in York's history' occurred when angry Christians, fired up by the Crusades, massacred the city's entire Jewish community.

York Minster is now one of the largest Cathedrals in Europe but it has a long history.  After the Danes destroyed a church on the site in 1075 a new Minster was built in the Norman style, with additions and modifications, from 1080 until 1215.  

In 1215 a new Bishop was appointed and set about rebuilding substantial parts of the Minster in the Gothic style; to make it the equal of Canterbury.  After many trials and tribulations this work was eventually completed over two and a half centuries later in 1472.  

 

York Minster

 

During the English Civil War York was besieged; and fell to Cromwell in 1644.  Protestant iconoclasts had already done substantial damage to the building; and due to the enormous cost, and further damage, it was not restored to the present condition until 1858. 

 

York Minster Interior

 

Since that time it has become famous for its magnificent stained glass windows; that require ongoing restoration. 

 

Interior at the Transept

 

 

Northern Christianity

 

With the Romans came Christianity.  The first British Christian martyr is said to be Saint Alban in the third century (executed in a crack down on this troublesome religion. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313 (see also York above). Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the time the Romans withdrew from Britain in 410 many had adopted the new religion, including communities in areas never under Roman control in Scotland and Ireland. 

In 410 the Roman legions withdrew from Britain to defend Rome itself now under increasing attack from the pagan Visigoths and Ostrogoths; so that for a period Rome itself was no longer Christian.  But in Britain, and elsewhere in northern Europe pockets of Christianity remained.   So we are told of Saint Patrick, a British Christian bishop, bringing Christianity to Ireland in 432; only to discover an already well established Christian monastic presence in the Irish Kingdom of Ossory.  Historians describe the remnants of insular Christianity remaining as 'Celtic Christianity', distinguished by its monastic style.  In 563 a monastery was founded on the island of Iona by the Irish monk Columba (Colm Cille). From this base the Christians set about converting the Picts in Scotland and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.  

In 634 the Irish monk Saint Aidan left Iona to establish Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island in Northumberland on the coast between Sunderland and Berwick-on-Tweed.

Just 40 years later the newly converted Queen Etheldreda of Northumbria granted lands for the construction of Hexham Abbey; the oldest continuous Christian Church in England.

 

Hexham Abbey Interior

 

 

Ongoing Viking raids on Lindisfarne Priory forced its relocation in 995 to the wonderfully strategic location almost surrounded by cliffs above the River Wear in Durham; with a narrow access neck easily defended; latterly by Durham Castle.  Today this site is home to both the beautiful cathedral and to the University of Durham.

In due course in Europe the Goths converted to Christianity and Constantinople fell to Islam.  After a brief period in which France was its centre Rome was re-established as the spiritual centre of the Christian church.   Meantime there was an accommodation between Celtic Christianity and the Roman Church, reinforced later by the Norman invasion of England, and a schism between Eastern and Western Christianity. 

 

 

From the Tower of Durham Cathedral

 

The present cathedral was founded in 1093, after the Norman invasion, and is UNESCO World Heritage Site; regarded as one of the finest examples of Norman architecture still existing.

 

 

Durham Cathedral

 

 

The first seeds of rebellion against the Vatican were financial.  A number of countries, including England, objected to the taxes and revenues from church lands being repatriated to extravagances in Rome. The Church was also widely considered to be corrupt. 

For example as a result of the Papal Schism of the 15th century the Scottish monarch gained the authority to appoint bishops.  In 1504 James IV's illegitimate son Alexander was nominated as Archbishop of St. Andrews at the age of eleven; illustrating to Christian intellectuals the depths depravity to which the Church had sunk.  

The Renaissance had brought a wide range of technological improvements.  Amongst other things these significantly changed military capability with developments in explosives; ship design; navigation and fortifications. The balance of power was changing; together with increasing literacy in regional languages; in addition to Latin.  Religious scholarship placed greater reliance on original sources; and scepticism mounted. 

Into this new world came Martin Luther, a German Catholic monk and professor of theology, who was engaged in translating the Bible into German; to be published using the new process of printing using removable type.  Luther found ninety five points of serious inconsistency between the then teachings of the Church and the Bible.  In particular he objected to the sale of indulgences which purported that 'freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money'. 

 

 

Coventry and Cambridge

 

From York we drove south to Coventry where we found, after some difficulty, a comfortable hotel, partly incorporating an historic watermill. 

I wanted to visit the old Cathedral now preserved as a War Memorial, as it recalls the bombing that might but for fortune, have killed my father.  

In 1940 he was a new RAF fighter pilot.  He famously went to 'the pictures' in the Coventry on the night before the Cinema was bombed; having hitched a ride in the petrol tanker that delivered the aircraft fuel to the base.

But the worst came on November 14 1940 when for the first time the Germans successfully used a combination of electronic target identification; high explosives; and firebombs to deliberately create a fire storm.  This caused in excess of 1,500 casualties and destroyed much of the city.  

The allies perfected this method and used it against German and Japanese targets including Dresden: 39 square kilometres destroyed and up to 25,000 dead; and Tokyo: 41 square km destroyed and 100,000 dead; each in a single raid.  The Tokyo raid killed more than either of the atomic bombs.

Ecce Homo by Epstein in the ruins of old Coventry Cathedral 

 

A new modern cathedral has been built along-side.  It contains a huge Tapestry of Christ and a cross of nails; twinned with one in Church in Berlin alongside a similar church ruin, destroyed by the Allies.

 

The new Coventry Cathedral

 

I found the city rather depressing with its elevated ring road and fifties architecture.  It was a dull day and the people in the street seemed to reflect my mood.  Our hotel, thankfully out in the countryside, was a haven. 

From there we made our way over to Cambridge for the day; before returning the car to London.

As everyone is aware Cambridge incorporates one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world. 

It is also famous for punting on the River Cam and related backwaters.  

 

Punts for hire in Cambridge

 

It's a very pleasant place to walk and, no doubt cycle, or punt, around.

 

Bikes are the way to go

 

Most University Colleges are not open to the public but King's College is; just to provide access to the Chapel, after purchase of an entrance ticket. 

 

 

The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas

 

The Chapel  is one of the most outstanding examples of late Gothic English architecture. It has a famous choir and is often seen on television, particularly around Christmas. 

 

The famous view

 

It has very fine stained-glass windows and the world's largest fan-vault ceiling. 

 

The fan-vaulting

 

There is a small museum that relates the College history and features an informative model explaining the engineering of the fan-vaulting; incorporating catenary rather than circular arches (see also the Tyne and Sydney Harbour Bridges above).

And so we returned to London before flying to Moscow for our Russian adventure... Read More...

 

 

More Photos of Britain

London

 

 Click on the image above to see the photo gallery (includes some from our previous visit)

 

 Scotland and England (Outside London)

 

Click on the image above to see the photo gallery