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Expert art historian and Professor Sharon Latchaw Hirsh gives you the answers to these and other questions in How to Look at and Understand Great Art. Her 36 lectures are an in-depth exploration of the practical skill of viewing art through the lenses of line, perspective, and other elements. Using more than 900 timeless masterpieces of Western art, as well as 3-D animations and studio demonstrations, she opens your eyes to entirely new ways of seeing—and experiencing—the majesty of great art.

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6.      Seeing the Big Picture—Composition

7.      The Illusion—Getting the Right Perspective

8.      Art That Moves Us—Time and Motion

9.      Feeling with Our Eyes—Texture and Light

10.   Drawing—Dry, Liquid, and Modern Media

11.   Printmaking—Relief and Intaglio

12.   Modern Printmaking—Planographic

13.   Sculpture—Salt Cellars to Monuments

14.   Development of Painting—Tempera and Oils

15.   Modern Painting—Acrylics and Assemblages

16.   Subject Matters

17.   Signs—Symbols, Icons, and Indexes in Art

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19.   Self-Portraits—How Artists See Themselves

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  Y      BETTYS CAFE

ndon

101 hin sto Do in England

Dambusting Over Derbyshire

A series of events have marked the

70th anniversary of the famous World

War Il Dambusters raid into Germany's Ruhr Valley. Among them, a single vintage Lancaster bomber performed a flypast over Derbyshire's Derwent Reservoir, which the original aircrews used for practice runs leading up to the dramatic raid.

A Major Discovery

Under Lincoln Castle Remember those archaeologists digging into the rebuilding of Lincoln Castle (May 2013)? Unexpectedly, they have uncovered the remnants of a 1,000-year-old church and eight skeletons ceremonially buried there more than 100 years before the Norman Conquest and William the Conqueror's first building of the castle. Unearthed 10 feet below the present ground level, the finds are being greeted by experts as "hugely significant."

DANG,O

Dover's White Cliffs Falling Down

A collapse of the cliff face at St Margaret's Bay brought tons of rock crashing onto the shoreline between Deal and Dover. The rockfall from the famous White Cliffs happened just yards away from a house once owned by Ian Fleming, leaving a pile of chalk 20-feet high extending 150 yards into the English Channel.

The Queen Receives a Bafta At this years British film and television awards, Her Majesty was presented by Kenneth Branagh with an honorary

Bafta for her lifelong support of British film and television—and for being "the most memorable Bond girl yet" at last summer's Olympic opening ceremonies.

Leitester•

Ricardian Controversy Continues

Northampton

Last Chance for

Princess Diana

Museum

OPENED IN 1998, the exhibition of the late Princess Diana's jewelry, dresses and family memorabilia at the Spencer family estate, Althorp, near Northampton, will close next summer. According to her will, Diana's belongings were to be protected by her brother, Earl Spencer, until her sons turned 30. Younger son Harry will be 30 next year. While it is unknown what will happen to the collection, British media speculate that it may eventually go on display at Kensington Palace, where Diana resided until her death.

After being on display for 15 years at the Spencer home, the late princess' possessions go to her sons.

Commonwealth Summit

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS, Her Majesty will not attend the biannual gathering of heads of government of the 54 Commonwealth nations to be held this November in Sri Lanka. The palace confirmed that the Prince of Wales, who will become head of the Commonwealth when he becomes king, will go in her place. The Royal Household has begun limiting her long-haul travel in a concession to the Queen's advancing age; she is now 87. Courtiers insist, however, that the monarch's diary will be as busy as ever. During the Diamond Jubilee year the indefatigable Queen undertook 425 public engagements.

Prince Charles will be taking on more royal duties.

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Maö'^tRosein Aistorid Milesto e

E ORE

Falkland Islanders Vote British A referendum in the Falklands on the question of whether the islanders wish to stay British in the face of Argentine claims on the islands yielded a clear result. With a 92 percent voter turnout, islanders voted 1513-to-3 in favor of remaining a British overseas territory.

Beckham Leaves the Pitch England's global football superstar has announced his retirement at age 38. David Beckham won four league championships in four different countries since starting his career with Manchester United. Beckham leaves the international stage having represented England in a record-setting 115 matches with the national team.

Quarry Dig Yields Neolithic Houses Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 5,700-year-old village at Kingsmead Quarry, near WindsoL The foundations of four Neolithic houses make up one of the oldest permanent settlements yet found in Britain. In fact, this is the first time more than one house from this period has ever been found on a single site.

Dr. Alistair Barclay, of Wessex

Archaeology, calls the discovery a unique opportunity to learn more about the earliest settlements in prehistoric Britain.

Even Actual Champagne

Takes a British Twist

The house label champagne from discount supermarket chain Asda, priced at less than £20, won a coveted Gold Medal at the International Wine

Challenge awards. The Asda Extra Special Premier Cru Champagne beat out expensive French rivals such as the £135 Cuvee Amour De Deutz in the annual wine "Oscars."

CRU

Mold, North Wales

The de Brecy Tondo Goes on the Block

IT HUNG ABOVE a bedroom fireplace in Leeswood Hall, Mold, for years. Art experts have been pouring over it for 30 years. Now the Raphael painting believed to be a prototype for the artist's Sistine Madonna is to be sold in a first-ofits-kind online auction. Regarded as one of the Renaissance artist's masterpieces, bidding will start at £1,000,000.

SO CELEBRATED have English wines become that even the Washington Post ran a front page story on the rise of English sparkling white wines to the level of good French champagnes and multiple international awards to prove it. Subtle warming of the British and Continental

The de Brecy Tondo has been described as the most studied Renaissance painting in the world.

climate over the last four decades is credited with being a major factor, and a major concern to French wine growers.

The subtle effects of climate change are credited with the dramatic improvement in English white wines. •

Take Ten

World War Il Visits

Where the War Years Come Alive

fil CABINET WAR ROOMS, u LONDON

This wartime bunker beneath Whitehall housed Churchill and his government during the Blitz. It became the effective command and control center while bombs fell on the city. In the maze of rooms, Churchill and the War Cabinet lived, worked and planned the war around the clock

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM,

DUXFORD

The former airfield in East Anglia holds and maintains all the iconic aircraft that flew from hundreds of bases across eastern England. A highlight is the American Air Museum, housing the largest collection of U.S. warbirds outside of the States—and honoring the 30,000 U.S. airmen who gave their lives flying from UK bases.

 EDEN CAMB

MALTON

Up in the Yorkshire Wolds, Eden Camp was a POW camp for 2,000 Italian and German prisoners of war—largely intact to this day. Now, Eden Camp is a "the modern history theme museum," and a most fascinating and comprehensive presentation of World War Il military operations and life on the Home Front.

AMERICAN MILITARY CEMETERY,

 MADINGLEY

Lovingly tended and unfailingly moving, just outside of Cambridge row on row of white crosses mark graves of U.S. servicemen who died serving out of the East Anglian airfields. The chapel and visitor center tell the powerful story of their war and their sacrifice.

 DOVER CASTLE, Z) DOVER

The second-largest castle in Britain has been guarding the Straits for centuries. Below the old castle, visit Hellfire Corner, the underground command post that organized the evacuation of Dunkirk, and the secret military hospital.

 BLETCHLEY PARK, C) MILTON KEYNES

Top secret for decades, Bletchley Park was the National Codes Centre that contributed mightily to Allied success. The famous German "Enigma" code was cracked here, and arguably the first proper computers in the world were built. Today, Bletchley Park is a fascinating visit, telling the whole story.

 D-DAY MUSEUM,

I] PORTSMOUTH

Operation Overlord set out from harbors all across the southern coast. The museum on the Southsea waterfront tells the story of the invasion of Normandy. One of its prizes is the Overlord Tapestry, recounting the invasion in an embroidered mural based on the famed Bayeaux Tapestry.

 AIR FORCES MEMORIAL,

u) RUNNYMEDE

Few Americans ever visit this poignant memorial perched overlooking the water meadows of Runnymede and the River Thames. Some 27,000 airmen who perished in the Battle of Britain and have no known grave are remembered by name and unit in the quiet, white colonnades. n CHARTWELL, V EDENBRIDGE

For many people, Winston Churchill remains the personification of Britain's World War Il experience. Here at his country home in Kent, Churchill spent his "wilderness" years, and retreated from London at war to plan, write and rejuvenate his own spirits.

COVENTRY CATHEDRAL,

COVENTRY

Coventry Cathedral, like the rest of the industrial city, was leveled by bombs during the war. The new cathedral, however, was raised out of the surviving shell of the old medieval church. It's an evocative visit and a different experience of the wa{s aftermath.

AIR FORCES MEMORIAL

AIR FORCES MEMORIAL

DANA HUNTLEY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 •

In Remembrance of

Margaret Thatcher

"WATCHING THE FUNERAL, finding it hard not to feel we are today somehow burying England," tweeted British journalist Melanie Phillips.

"We will do well to honor Margaret Thatcher appropriately. She saved Britain," noted Prime Minister David Cameron in the House of Commons following Lady Thatcher's passing.

While there are plenty of people who vehemently take issue that Maggie Thatcher, the Iron Lady, saved Britain, there is certainly no question that she changed it, and changed it more markedly than any politician in more than a century. Whether you loved her or hated her for the policies she successfully championed during her 11 years as prime minister, Margaret Thatcher was important.

I was in the York Visitors Centre when word spread of Margaret Thatcher's death. For some reason it was one of those indelible moments—like remembering where you

were when JFK was assassinated or on the morning of 9/11. The rest of that cold April day in York memories flooded back to me of those years in the '80s when the Iron Lady was very much in charge and trod mightily for Britain on the world stage.

I was there in 1982, when Argentina launched its occupation of the Falkland Islands. Without hesitation, Thatcher took the country to an unlikely war to protect its sovereignty and the freedom of British citizens on a set of rocky islands 12,000 miles from the British mainland. She persevered, and the British military and people rose to the occasion in true British fashion. She gave the country something to cheer about and justly express national pride.

I was there in 1983, when hundreds of thousands of working-class families across Britain were giddy that Maggie's housing policy would allow them to buy their public housing "council house" at a discount—and get them on the housing ladder. I remember, all of a sudden, old Will had something to leave his grandson; he was chuffed indeed.

I was there in 1984 when Arthur Scargill led the miners out on strike and Margaret faced down the union for more than a year. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't fun for anyone.

Margaret Thatcher's formal portrait at 10 Downing

In the two or three days following the former prime minister's passing, all the news coverage on British media was devoted to covering the topic from every perspective. Not unsurprisingly, much attention was paid to the "divisive" nature of Thatcher's person and her legacy. For all the just accolades and warm memories shared of Margaret Thatcher, the media repeatedly showed snippets as well of miners in South Yorkshire or elsewhere in celebratory spirits at the death of this old enemy.

I know that side, too. Over the past 20 years, I have spent more time in the Valleys—the coal fields of South Wales than any other corner of Britain. It's a place and a people for which I have great affection. In the '70s a quarter of a million men worked in the coal fields; now the mines are silent and more than 20 years after the closure of the last pits, memories of Margaret Thatcher are still hot, and there is no love lost for the Conservative party generally. Employment, a way of life and an industry are gone; the social cost is still high; and, yes, Thatcher was largely responsible (though mine closures had already begun under Harold Wilson). Throughout Britain's coalfields, the story is the same—in Yorkshire, Durham, the Scottish lowlands and such. That's where Thatcher is denounced and vilified to this day. It's quite understandable why people bear such feelings. When your own life is so materially impacted, it's rather difficult to step back and take a larger view.

But take it we must, and history shall. In the late '70s before Margaret Thatcher's first electoral victory, Britain was widely scorned as the "sick man of Europe." Its economy was in a shambles following three decades of Labour's deficit spending and social engineering. Inflation ran above 13 percent in 1979 (it wasn't much better in this country). All of Britain's traditional heavy industries had been nationalized. The State owned the coal mines and the steel works, automotive manufacturing, telecommunications, railroads, British Airways and even Thomas Cooke. The state companies all ran at a deficit, subsidized an average of £300 million each per year by a depleted treasury and usurious tax rates. It took six months to get a telephone, garbage piled up in Trafalgar Square and widespread power outages meant that many industries could only function three days a week.

At the same time, the workforce all belonged to the trade unions, which enjoyed a closed shop in monopoly, state-owned industries. Year after year the union leaders took their unions out on strike, decimating Britain's industrial output and virtually holding the Government to ransom. In 1979 Britain lost 29 million working days to industrial action. The difference between British and American labor law was significant: British unions did not have to poll their members before a strike. There was no ballot; union leaders could simply call their members out on strike. In practice, that meant that the British economy and the production of its heavy industry lay hostage to the dictates of eight or a dozen labor union bosses.

Margaret Thatcher ran the 1979 election with a straightforward slogan: "Enough is enough. " The British electorate agreed and Maggie swept into 10 Downing Street with a clear vision for what she saw must be done. No, there was no soft landing. There never is. Unemployment and interest rates both rose significantly as the stalwart Iron Lady reformed British labor law, privatized 33 national companies, revised Britain's outmoded banking regulations and took a lead in the machinations of world politics that brought an end to the Cold War.

By the late '80s, however, the companies that had been draining the treasury with subsidies were paying £3 to 5 billion a year to the Exchequer. People who never dreamed of owning shares bought them in the public offerings; British Airways' IPO was five-times oversubscribed, not by speculating merchant banks, but by ordinary Brits. Consumer prices fell as well with privatization: telecom charges dropped 40 percent, natural gas prices 25 to 40 percent

Even Maggie's Spitting Image puppet is famous.

ABOVE LEFT AND RIGHT: REUTERS; RIGHT: LEWIS WHYLD/PA WIRE

'A

and airport charges by 10 percent.

When Thatcher took office, some 26 percent of the British people owned their own home; when she left office in 1990, 41 percent were homeowners. Inflation was below 3 percent. British manufacturing production had risen 7.5 percent. In her spare time, she faced down the IRA and signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, and brokered the relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev that brought the Cold War to an effective conclusion.

Avowed statists of any description are bound to take issue with a political leader who famously believed, "There is no such thing as society; there are individual men and women, and there are families." Thatcher believed in the moral primacy of the individual, not of the State, consistent with the world view of her Methodist upbringing, and with the aspirational liberalism of John Stuart Mill that championed responsibility and authority to individuals for their own lives. Her critics blithely call

The former prime minister lay in the Crypt Chapel of St. Mary Undercroft at Westminster Palace.

that "greed" and "selfishness; " her champions call it freedom.

The funerals of past political leaders are generally low-key affairs in Britain. Not since Churchill's death in 1965 had the Queen attended a former PM's funeral, nor had the bells of Big Ben been silenced. Nor had the streets of London been lined with tens of thousands of ordinary Britons paying their respects. Largely, the ideological gloves were laid aside for that day. At the service in St. Paul's Cathedral, it was not her political accomplishments that were remembered, but her personal character, her warmth and human kindness, her humor and her sense of duty.

Even former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown, certainly no fan of Thatcher's leadership, described her as "the greatest prime minister of our day." In its editorial following Margaret Thatcher's death, the Daily Telegraph summarized just why Lord Ashdown's assessment is deserved: "So signal was the Iron Lady's character that she would have been a giant in any age...She may have divided opinion, and occasionally even outraged it, but she lifted this nation from decline and despair, and restored it to success, influence and prosperity. It is hard to appreciate the scale of her achievements, and to acknowledge the depth of our debt to her...lf Britain is still Great, it is because of this greatest of Britons. "

— Dana Huntley

•

IN THE SKIRL OF THE BAGPIPES and the twirl of the kilt, Scotland embodies a unique and ancient culture. Scotland The Brave is a panoramic discovery of this distinct and dramatic kingdom of northern Britain. Here is an itinerary that can be enjoyed equally well by driving or taking the train. By train, take a Britrail Freedom of Scotland Pass (www.britrail.com) and jump on and off the train at will.

Day 1 Welcome to Aberdeen

There is no rule that says every trip has to begin in London. Jump right into the north of Scotland with a short connecting flight up to Aberdeen. Affluent with the North Sea oil industry, and commercial hub of northeast Scotland, Aberdeen makes a great place to recuperate from the journey and acclimate to Scotland. The airport is just seven miles north of the central city. It's a 15-minute taxi ride, or a 30minute bus ride. Stay downtown and explore the neighborhood. Of course, there's a full range of hotel options. You can begin with the accommodation directory at www.aberdeen-grampian.com, which has complete information for the Aberdeen visitor. It will probably be an early night tonight in any event.

Day 2 Explore the Granite City

Take the day sightseeing in Aberdeen (the city of 100,000 roses—in season). There's Old Aberdeen and St. Machar's Cathedral, fortified during the turbulent 14th century, and Brig o' Balgownie. Cobblestoned Shiprow and the Victorian dockland adjacent to the River Dee. Perhaps the shops along Union Street, a visit to 16th-century Provost Skene's House, or a walk in Union Terrace Gardens enjoying the city's passion for flowers. Not to be missed any time of the year, however, are the Winter Gardens at Duthie Park that are the city's crowning glory—one of the largest indoor gardens in Europe.

Day 3 Across the Grampian Line

By road or rail today, our route leads across Aberdeenshire and the Grampian Highlands. The scenery is terrific, and traveling either way, you can plan to stop and explore. By road, it is the A96, all the way to Inverness. By rail, it's the Grampian Line, with 10 trains a day pro-

Like many Aberdeenshire coastal towns,

Portsoy's harbor has lost its fishing fleet.

viding plenty of options. Travel light, and jump off at any of these places along the way. Just leave your gear at the station while you take an hour or two to explore. In Huntly, pause for a visit to the ruins of Huntly Castle, seat of the powerful Gordon clan. In Keith, take in the historic whisky distillery of Chivas Regal. In Elgin, visit the dramatic ruins of 13thcentury Elgin Cathedral, where the Gordon clan chieftains can still claim burial rights. Then, carry on to Inverness, "Capital of the Highlands," where the River Ness meets the Moray Firth. Hotels, B&Bs and guest houses are plentiful in a town that loves visitors.

Day 4 A Day Well-Spent in Inverness In the morning, make an excursion to the nearby battlefield of Culloden Moor. Here in 1745, the Jacobite highland clans were defeated by the Hanoverian army. It is one of the most moving battlefields in Britain—and the last battle fought on British soil. Come afternoon, take a lake cruise

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A monument to toughness. The people of Rhodes were ready for Demetrius and repelled his attack. To celebrate, they built the Colossus of Rhodes, a 107-foot bronze and iron giant that towered over the harbor like a ten-story trophy. It warned future invaders that "Rhodes is tougher than you think." You give the same message when you wear the Stauer Colossus.

The timepiece that works twice as hard. The Colossus Hybrid Chronograph will keep you on schedule, but it's about much more than time. The imposing case features a rotating gunmetal bezel that frames the silver, black and yellow face. You'll find a battalion of digital displays on the dial arranged behind a pair of luminescent hands and a bold yellow second hand. Powered by a precise quartz movement, the watch is doubly accurate in analog and digital mode.

The Colossus is packed with plenty of handy extras including a bright green EL back-light for enhanced nighttime visibility, a tachymeter along the outer dial and a full complement of alarms and split-second countdown timers. It secures with a folded steel bracelet that highlights a row of striking dark center links. It's a rugged watch that's more than ready for your daily grind.

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On the Road

down the Caledonian Canal to the black, mysterious waters of Loch Ness. You may not see Nessie, but it's easier to believe after you've been on the lake. Take time, as well, to poke around the shops. There's no better place to buy Scottish woolens. This is a tourist town, and there are plenty of options for evening entertainment and local Highland culture.

Day 5 Through the Grampian Mountains The A9 and the rail tracks run parallel heading south through Aviemore and the Cairngorm Mountains. Pitlochry makes a nice stop off. If you pause in the "Gateway to the Highlands," you might pay a call at kiltmakers MacNaughtons, which we featured in British Heritage, January 2012. At the southern edge of the Grampians, where the River Tay opens into the Firth of Tay sits the small, historic city of Perth. Great visits are St. John's Church and the 1475 Fair Maid's House. Perth Museum and Art Gallery is among the oldest museums in Scotland. The pretty town makes a good overnight stop.

From Perth, both road and rail routes lead directly across the Kingdom of Fife to Edinburgh in just an hour or so. If time permits, however, plan an easy detour to Stirling for a visit to Stirling Castle, the traditional home to Scottish monarchs for centuries and a fascinating repository of Scottish history. Just outside of town, you might visit the dramatic Wallace Monument, as well.

When it is time to carry on, Edinburgh is easily accessible within an hour. In summer, though, make sure you have lodgings planned in advance. Whet your appetite for the city's attractions and accommodation at www.edinburgh.org.

Day 7 The Athens of the North Scotland's capital is a cornucopia of history and the arts. The Visitors Centre on

At the top, the pagodas of Strathisla Distillery in Keith make Chivas Regal. Above, the Gordon Arms in Huntly's marketplace sits just down the street from the Gordon seat of Huntly Castle.

Princes Street is one of the best. The place to begin exploring, however, is the Royal Mile, with the fortress of Edinburgh Castle, St. Giles Cathedral and a dozen great museums lining the cobbled route downhill to the Palace of Holyrood House. Then, explore the 18th-century New Town with its beautiful Georgian squares, sample the shopping along Princes Street, and perhaps climb Calton Hill for incredible views of the city and out over the Firth of Forth. It would certainly take several days to unpack Edinburgh, but not everyone has the same amount of time. When yours is up, Edinburgh Airport and Waverley Station easily connect you back to the real world, or on to further adventures in Britain.

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Around the Town with Sandra Lawrence

Cabmens' Shelters and a Bird on My Head

THERE'S NO DOUBT ABOUT IT—the recession in Britain is, like the truly unpleasant weather we've had for months on end now, biting hard. Shops are shutting, events scaling down and long-established traditions struggling. Only the very wealthy are able to continue exactly as they were, but that doesn't mean the rest of us spend every night watching TV (despite the ice, snow and gales outside).

A perhaps unexpected reply to an austerity pinching like old corns has been a burst of creativity, a fresh interpretation in the boundaries of entertainment to create concepts that use spaces hitherto unexplored, art forms mashed up and refashioned into something truly different, and times of day that 'til now haven't been used.

Take The Hippodrome, for example. Slap, bang in the middle at Leicester Square, this once-august theater was reinvented into a casino last year, firmly in the Vegas mode. Slot machines and roulette tables do little for me, but I am a firm fan of the fabulous supperclub upstairs in the Matcham Room; I wrote a few months ago about seeing singer Julian Ovenden there. But this is a 24-hour venue and it seemed a shame not to use the small hours, too. They're trying out all manner of entertainments—cabaret, burlesque, alternativecircus—and something that really appealed to me, a dance night reminiscent of the clubs of the 1930s and 40s. Trumpeter Jay Phelps, crazy for the music of Duke Ellington and his ilk, has created an intimate dance band that is at once authentic and fresh for a night known as Jay's Jitter Jive. His singer, Lauren Dalrymple, reminded me of all the great Jazz divas of the age without aping any of them—she's her own woman and I loved her for her originality. My pal Simon Selmon and his dance partner of the London Swing Dance Society, who hold regular lindyhop classes throughout the city, were there to demonstrate moves, and to dance with guests throughout the evening. I was entranced. And yes, of course I danced.

The whole idea of the evening is that it's late. The set didn't start until 11 p.m., which, given London's creaking tube system, does present a slight issue of the journey home afterwards. There's talk of trying to keep the tubes open longer, though that's hard because the system's so old they need all the downtime they can get for maintenance. In the meanwhile, for anyone outside Zone One, like me, a black cab is a pricey option. No one should ever take a non-pre-booked minicab and driving in central London is a nightmare, which leaves night buses. I hadn't taken one for years; they have something of a reputation, but that evening I thought I'd try the N 1, which goes from Tottenham Court Road direct to the bottom of my road in Greenwich. I came to the conclusion that the bad rep is undeserved. My journey was clean, quiet and unthreatening, largely shared with chefs, waiters and West End musicians knocking off from work. My particular bus runs half-hourly throughout the night. I have since talked with other people about their experiences and they largely agree that, perhaps with the odd Saturdayevening-drunks exception, night buses aren't the scary no-go zones they used to be. If you're ever caught out, they are a serious alternative option to the scarily expensive-after-IO p.m. black cabs.

The West End might be enjoying a Golden Age, but so are its prices, and much as I love to go to the big-hitter shows, I am glad that they are currently being rivalled by some exciting fringe productions pushing boundaries in both performance style and venue. I have been to two "immersive productions this month, as different from each other as you could get, but fascinating in their own way. The first, In The Beginning There Was The End, was held in a labyrinth of disused laboratories in the bowels of Somerset House on the Strand. In very small groups, the audience entered a freakish world of "weird stuff," where actors in lab coats welcomed us to the public face of a fictitious top-secret scientific facility clearly hiding more than it was showing. Just as we were part way through the "public tour" by what I can only describe as Stepford Scientists, the lights went out and things started to go very wrong. A wall fell away and we found ourselves in the areas the authorities didn't want us to see: experiments getting out of hand, inventions veering out of control, robots developing minds of their own and a mass-walkout of employees for undisclosed reasons. It was quite baffling—but fascinating, too, and a great example of theater companies working with the tough times to find new audiences and new spaces.

As soon as I heard about The Salon Project at the Barbican's Pit Theatre, I knew I had to be a part of it. A couple of months before the event, spectators get an email requesting their measurements. On arrival, each member of the audience is dressed in a costume specifically designed for them; their hair and make up is created by an army of backstage artists as they are transformed into turn-of-the-last-century salon guests. They are then shown into the grand lounge of the gracious salonniere, given a sparkling glass of fizz and enveloped in an evening of fin de siecle entertainment with a modern twist. Talks from the great minds of the day—different every evening, I understand—which, although perhaps discussing 2 Ist-century topics, are very much in the style of the grand salons of the past. Tableaux, music, interpretive dance and earnest conversation with fellow guests followed, under the gentle glow of chandeliers, the gleam of age-spotted mirrors and the slightly ominous chiming of the clock, reminding us that the great age of Victorian/Edwardian salon culture had a very rude awakening.

If I am completely honest, the best bit about the evening was the dressing up. There was much excitement backstage for my costume as someone had decided to give me a hat finished with an entire stuffed bird, that the crew had all been eyeing up. Spending the evening with a bird on my head, some rather alarming distinctly green makeup and looking like a cross between Morticia Adams and Lady Bracknell was marvellous fun, though I confess that when that clock finally chimed for carriages, I was rather relieved to take the hat off. I had a headache from the sheer weight of it the entire next day. Untitled Projects, who presented the evening, haven't decided whether to repeat it yet, but given the entire run sold out within days of going on sale, I expect it to return and I will go to anything else they produce.

I COULD NOT CONSIDER this month's column complete without mentioning the extraordinary exhibition Life and Death— Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum. Featuring artifacts, murals and even one or two of those haunting casts of the unfortunates who lost their lives in the ancient disaster, the exhibition focuses on the human, everyday world that these Roman citizens enjoyed. I've been to both sites and had feared I might be replicating the experience. But it was completely different, with carefully curated objects taking us on a journey through the streets, houses and family lives of Pompeii's doomed populace, citizen, slave and freedman alike in an alternative way. The most intimate of objects, from personal grooming items and paintings from the bedroom, through a child's crib (found, tragically, with baby and its comfort-blanket inside, though thankfully not displayed as such) to jewellery found on the people themselves, this is emotional stuff in a way that starts as a slight ache in the heart and ends as a feeling of true poignancy to the soul. New discoveries are constantly being made at Pompeii, but human pain has not altered in 2,000 years.

Phew. Next time I have ambitions to get very chocolaty indeed, tickets for a West End show and plans for a Royal picnic out of town.

TOP LEFT: SANDRA LAWRENCE; RIGHT-. COURTESY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM                                                                                                                                SEPTEMBER 2013 BRITISH HERITAGE • 21

 Sceptered Isle with Editor Dana Huntley

IF ROBERT BROWNING HAD SEEN this April in England, he probably would not have bothered to have any "Home Thoughts from Abroad. "

Following last year's wettest summer in a century, it was a cold winter in Britain, culminating in the coldest March since 1962. Late in the month, blizzards dropped 8 t012 inches of snow across the high grounds from the Chilterns to the Cairngorms. The weather didn't brighten and warm sufficiently to eliminate the snow cover for several weeks.

I landed at Heathrow the day after Easter for my spring editorial adventures. In the next fortnight I never saw the temperature reach 50. There are few Aprils I've not been in Britain over the last 30 years, and I never saw it quite like this. From daffodils to flowering hedges, the spring was a full month behind.

One consequence of the late snow and cold was both sad and frustrating. March and early April is lambing time. Upland farmers in Wales, the Peaks, Cumbria and elsewhere lost thousands of lambs, frozen in the snow. European Union directives demand that such dead animals not be buried on the land, but taken elsewhere for more, eh, sanitary disposal. Not surprisingly, that supra-national regulation has created yet another furor between Britain's country people and the EU.

My first destination was the Oxfordshire village of Bampton, just a few miles south on Witney. Out the M4 to Junction 14, I drove through the chilly afternoon up the east side of the Cotswolds. Tiny Bampton is where the village scenes in Downton Abbey have been filmed; I was curious.

It's all there: the cottage hospital, the parish church and Mrs. Crawley's house. I took a room at The Romany Inn, at the end of Church View, the street where village exteriors were shot and various characters strolled on errands. Of course, that street scene looks very different without the cars, satellite dishes and contemporary signage. There was no one else at the inn that night, but Mike, the landlord, is expecting a busy summer.

The next morning I turned west to Northleach and took the principal route north through the heart of the Cotswolds, the A429. Along the route lie those painfully picturesque tourist towns that through the season are lined with coaches of sightseeing visitors: Bout-ton-on-the-Water, Stowon-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh. It's easy to overlook that they are so popular because they are charming and photogenic, and filled with clever shops and antiques

On a mid-April morning, the Cumbrian peaks above Thirlmere were as cold as they look.

and beautiful settings for coffee or lunch. It was market day in Moreton. Among the colorful stalls, the music of a street performer rang clear. A young Jamaican was playing the steel drum—a stirring rendition of "How Great Thou Art." He grinned broadly for the camera.

The A429 led up to Stratford-uponAvon, where I digressed to visit the Elizabethan manor of Charlecote Park. The story has it that Shakespeare as a youth was nicked for poaching deer in the park. The deer herd is still there, but now kept discretely behind fencing.

After a stay in Warwick and visits to Kenilworth Castle and Canons Ashby, I headed north. As a general rule, I avoid the motorways as much as possible. They are strictly for Point A to Point B, and if you're driving 70 or anything slower, you do want to be in the slow lane. This was one of those occasions, though, and the 1/140, 1M5 and M6 had me in Cumbria in three hours (not generally in the slow lane).

I'd never routed from the Cumbrian peninsulas north up the back side of the Lake District; it had seemed a great drive on paper. The A595 from Ulverston north along the coast, however, is an A road purely by honorary designation. It took more three hours to traverse the 60 miles up to Whitehaven. Admittedly, I dawdled and took the photo ops. Scafell Pike (England's tallest mountain at just over 3,000 feet) was bathed in snow, as were all the Lakeland peaks.

I settled for the night in the market town of Cockermouth at the Trout Hotel, next to the house where William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were born and spent their childhoods. Wordsworth, of course, became the ultimate Lake Poet, returning to the Lakes as a successful writer and personality. The next morning, heading south, I stopped in Grasmere where Wordsworth and his family are buried in St. Oswald's churchyard. It's just down the street from Dove Cottage, which he shared with his sister for many years.

Keswick, Bowness and Windermere teem with visitors in summer—and in a warm springtime. Yet even with that springtime nowhere to be found, there were visitors aplenty in the popular Lakeland centers. It was time to head east. From Kendall, I crossed the Pennines at Garsdale Head and into the Yorkshire Dales. Did I mention that it was cold? Four layers of clothes, two of heavy wool, were not enough to keep out the chill of temps in the 30s with a stiff and steady 15-20 mph wind off the North Sea. Snow blanketed in the craggy hills in every direction.

Wensleydale. Longest and most famous of the Yorkshire Dales, Wensleydale is not only a rich agricultural valley, but a scene of much history. Back in the 15th century, its lord and master was King Richard Ill. It was indeed Richard Ill that drew me on this trip. The ill-fated (but newly famous) king grew up here and had his power base at Middleham Castle, which gives its name to the village just south of Leyburn.

I put up at the White Swan Inn on Middleham's cobbled square. From my room I could see the three pubs and village store on the square, and the remaining turrets and ramparts of the castle looming above. The clop-clop of horses on the cobbles woke me the next morning. Middleham Castle may have spawned the town, but that's yesterday's news for the folk who live and work

DANA HUNTLEY

Il'lL

here. Middleham's more contemporary claim to fame is as the racing capital of the North. In the farms and paddocks that encircle the stone village, more than 500 racehorses are being raised and trained. Throughout the morning, in groups of three or four, horses were being ridden and led through the square to their exercise runs across the bare, surrounding hills.

A few miles south, I stopped to visit Jervaulx Abbey, one of Yorkshire's great Cistercian monasteries. The manicured ruins are magnificent, and held in private hands. There's an admission charge of £3, but no one will take your money. There's an honesty box at the end of the walk. Then, it was on to Masham, home to two of Yorkshire's great breweries (Theakston's and Black Sheep), and Ripon, cathedral city of the Dales.

At Thirsk, I visited the Thirsk Museum, just across the street from James Herriot's place, and then headed still east into the Yorkshire Wolds. I did make it to the North Sea coast at Scarborough and south to Bridlington. In truth, though, those seaside towns have little to recommend them and aren't somewhere to hang out—even

The Oxfordshire village of Bampton, just a few miles south of Witney may look quite recognizable as "Downton" to fans of Downton Abbey. That's "Mrs. Crawley's House" next to the church; left, the small village library was filmed as the cottage hospital.

in warm weather.

At Malton, however, I paid a call at Eden Camp. A World War Il POW camp for Italian and German prisoners, Eden Camp is largely intact. Described as a "modern history theme museum," the camp today is a comprehensive presentation of the war both abroad and on the home front. The prison huts tell the narrative from "The Rise of Adolf Hitler" to the reunion celebrations of veterans years after the war. Throughout the site, artifacts from field artillery to Anderson shelters bring the conflict to life.

Going from warm car to blowing chill and back 30 times a day for a week does take its toll. By the time I got to York, I was in sorry shape, and happy to turn in the car after 900 miles. It was in the York Visitor's Centre the next morning that I heard the news of Margaret Thatcher's death. That is its own story, of course. Mine did continue with errands in York and a train to London. The travel adventures that I précis and share, as regular readers know, return again as features over the next several issues. Bronchitis notwithstanding, British travel is always rewarding, and I do always love to have British Heritage readers along!

SEPTEMBER 2013 BRITISH HERITAGE • 23

Sea Clif

North York Moors

Where timeless fishing ^villiages tumble to the shore

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JIM HARGAN

VER THE MILLENNIA the North Sea has sliced off the eastern edge of the North York Moors as with a knife, exposing its hard rocky core for all to see—33 miles of continuous pinkish-tan cliffs never less than 100 feet high and sometimes more than 600 feet. For the most part they are nearly devoid of settlement; empty grassland separates widely scattered farmsteads, the cliff-tops reachable only by the Cleveland Way long distance path. Tiny villages shoehorn into niches in the cliffs, their painted stone cottages terracing up alleys formed by steps and sidewalks. Part of the North York Moors National Park since 1952, this line of cliffs and its villages remains in pristine condition.

There is one exception to the general emptiness of the cliff regions: Whitby, a crowded little town of 13,000 set in a river gorge that slashes through the halfway point of the cliffs. Its busy streets line a wide harbor and cut into the cliff-sides, cobblestone surfaces climbing past centuries-old cottages. Above it all sits the ruins of a medieval abbey, built to commemorate a much earlier abbey, where in 664 the British churches accepted Roman (rather than Celtic) rules. The original abbey was sited here as protection from Vikings, a failure as it turned out, as the 160-foot cliffs, although intimidating from the sea, could be easily scaled via harbor paths. Steps still climb the cliffs from the town center, while sand beaches stretch to its west under cliffs only slightly lower.

Whitby's original site, chosen for protection against sea-faring freebooters while maintaining access to the sea, reflected an age when nearly all commerce was seaborne but governments were still too weak to protect either this commerce or its lesser ports-of-call. It was for this reason that the fishing village of Fylingdales was founded on the cliff-tops rather than the base where they kept their

Like many villages along the North Yorkshire coast, Robin Hood's Bay (below) tumbles down the cliffs to the North Sea. Above, the fishing harbor of Staithes huddles in what appears to be a precarious position beneath the rocks.

boats, a half-mile walk down 200-foot cliffs. Although the village's medieval church remains at the old village's location, the villagers felt safe enough by Tudor times to move right down to the cliff bottom, building their cottages in rocky shelves cut by a little beck.

They called their new settlement Robin Hood's Bay, and

At Robin Hood's Bay, the local museum flies an old village banner.

told a story of how the Nottinghamshire hero had driven out the pirates and brought safety to the fisher-folk. They built solid stone cottages set into the cliff-sides around the harbor, reachable by a maze of stone paths and steps. The sturdy construction of the cottages and village indicate a higher standard of living than you'd expect from people living off the sale of fish—a sign that the smuggling did not completely stop when the pirates left. There's a pub and hotel by the harbor, several B&Bs, gift shops and tea rooms scattered about its middle terraces, and a wonderful local museum hidden way up on its highest shelf. The museum, set in a Victorianera mortuary, is filled with local history memorabilia on shipping, fishing and smuggling, as well as the colorful banner of the Robin Hood and Little John Friendly Society. The cliffs, easily reached from the harbor-side pub, are noted for their fossils and rocky tidal pools. Access to the town is strictly by foot from the cliffs above.

To the northwest some 14 miles, the village of Staithes has a similar history and a similar situation. Here a tiny beck has cut a substantial canyon through the cliffs, and the fishing village climbs up its near-vertical south wall, and then jumps across the stream on a foot bridge to fill a narrow shelf beneath its north wall. The sizeable village contains seven restaurants and cafes (including three pubs) as well as gift shops and a gallery specializing in the work of the Staithes Group, artists who found inspiration here in the late 19th century. As with Robin Hood's Bay, the surrounding cliff bases are easily reached from the town center, and are known for their ammonite fossils, which resemble chambered nautiluses. Two miles to the west (along the Cleveland Way) are the Boulby Cliffs, at 660 feet the tallest in England. While you can drive into the village and drop someone off, you cannot park there; once again, you must park up the hill and walk down.

If you want to drive down the cliff to park in a village center, visit Runswick Bay, two miles southeast of Staithes. It's smaller than the other village and with fewer facilities, but still features the trim stone cottages, whitewashed and grouped tightly around

SEPTEMBER    BRITISH HERITAGE • 27

All You Need to Know

North Yorks Moors National Park covers a huge inland area (about 550 square miles) as well as the coastal cliffs. Its website, www.northyorkmoors.org.uk, is very visitor-oriented. The entire cliff area except for Skinningrove and Saltburn is governed by Scarborough Borough Council, whose Tourism Bureau sponsors the website wvvw.discoveryorkshirecoast.com.

Opening times and admission information for Scarborough Castle, run by English Heritage, can be found at www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/scarborough-castle.

For Staithes and other nearby cliff villages, try the excellent and informative website www.visitstaithes.com, run by the rural English equivalent of a local chamber of commerce. For Robin Hood's Bay, www.robin-hoods-bay.co.uk is a good source of visitor information. The Robin Hood's Bay Museum can be found at museum.rhbay.co.uk. For the Cleveland

Ironstone Museum in Skinningrove, visit www.ironstonemuseum.co.uk.

narrow paths and steps. It also has a substantial sand beach about 100 yards south of the parking lot. Nearby are the ruins of Port Mulgrove, a substantial iron mining settlement in the 19th century, but now nothing more than abandoned breakwaters. It's on National Trust lands, at the base of a 300-foot cliff that must be negotiated on a steep, rough path. It is said to offer the finest fossil hunting in the area, despite (or perhaps because of) its inaccessibility. Look for gray nodules and split them open with a hammer; you might just find a complete ammonite.

nlike Port Mulgrove, the mining town of Skinningrove remains intact and populous, snug in its gorge near the northwest end of the cliffs. Its works did not close until the 1970s, and the town has the feel of a Victorian industrial settlement down on its luck rather than a Tudor fishing and smuggling village. What it lacks in restored quaintness, however, it makes up in easy parking, nearly no tourists and fine cliff access. The town is worth a stop for its excellent mining museum, the Cleveland Ironstone Museum, where an iron mine and its entrance tunnel have been repaired and opened to the public.

Early iron mining villages such as Skinningrove, Port Mulgrave and Staithes relied on their ports to get their ore to markets, but by the late 19th century this wasn't cutting it. A railroad was built following the cliffs, about a half-mile inland—actually two railroads, the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesborough Union for the north half, and the Scarborough and Whitby Railroad from Whitby southward. The latter, never profitable because of its steep grades and sharp turns, is now a paved bicycle path known as the Cinder Track. Just outside Whitby it crosses the valley of the River Esk on a brick viaduct carried 120 feet above the river by 13 slim brick arches, whose broad views were praised by Bram Stoker in Dracula. From there it twists and turns through the empty farmlands above the cliffs, passing Robin Hood's Bay at five miles and reaching its literal and figurative high point at 10 miles—Ravenscar, atop 600 foot cliffs.

The Victorian era railroad owners expected Ravenscar to be a big hit among tourists, what with its astonishing views, and developed it accordingly. Alas, English holiday-makers, who love their beaches above even the finest views, did not appreciate

The wide powder beaches of Saltburn Sands spread out beneath the moors and cliffs, and Saltburn Pier sticks its tongue out at the cold North Sea.

having to climb a 600-foot cliff path to reach a stony shingle, and ignored it in droves. Today, it's a scatter of 19th-century urban architecture among the fields, including a railway station and hotel (now a tea shop). The views, however, remain stunning, and unlike the slightly higher cliffs at Boulby, easily reached by auto; the National Trust maintains a visitors' center here.

Fine little cities anchor the ends of the North York Moors cliffs. On the northwest it's Saltburn-by-the-Sea, a classic seaside town with a wide sand beach. A mile's walk from the beach leads you to the top of 300-foot cliffs, and these cliffs frame all views over the broad, flat sands. The attractive Victorian town sits atop its own 100-foot cliff, linked to the beach by a gravity-powered inclined railway; the top car has its large tank filled with water, whose weight causes it to sink down the steep track and pull the lower car up.

Scarborough, however, is the crown jewel of the cliffs of the North York Moors. A lively little city of some 50,000, it guards the southern end of the Jurassic formations with a formidable castle atop a cliff-ringed promontory 280 feet above the town. Its keep survives, as well as its gatehouse and most of its walls, all built of fine golden stone with wide views over the town. The castle cliffs protrude almost into the harbor, with paved paths leading steeply down. Here, pleasure craft and fishing boats bob at anchor inside a tidal harbor marked by a whitewashed stone lighthouse, lined with buildings that alternate between distinguished history and gaudy vulgarity. Beyond that the Victorian city center perches 200 feet above spectacular sand beaches. This marks the southern end of the North York Moors, although a differing geology continues to form sea cliffs from younger Cretaceous rocks for another 20 miles.

At Scarborough's center you will find The Rotunda, one of Britain's finest science museums, founded and designed in 1829 by the great geologist William Smith. A canal surveyor, Smith had pioneered the principles by which strata are sequenced by way of fossil groups, and had used his principles to construct the first geological map of England in 1815. The museum now proudly celebrates his achievements with displays carefully restored from their 19thcentury originals, including Smith's original cross-section of Yorkshire's cliffs ringing the top of the cylindrical main building.

                                             SEPTEMBER      BRITISH HERITAGE • 29

Voted the nation's Food Capital in 2011, Lincolnshire is the UK's largest potato producer, biggest cereal production area and the secondlargest sugar beet producer, too. Its farmers grow cauliflowers, varieties of cabbage, sprouts, leeks, shallots, onions, carrots, parsnips, salad onions, herbs and lettuces—which all help to account for nearly 30 percent of the nation's field vegetable crops.

But what is it that makes Lincolnshire the premier food-producing county in England?

"The primary issues are the quality of soils and the county's benign climate," says grower Mark Tinsley, who chairs the Lincolnshire Forum for Agriculture and Horticulture. In this partnership between the public sector and farming, horticulture and food and drink industries work together to address the issues which affect them all.

"By the quality of soils, we mean its workability, lack of stone and its fertility—quite a lot historically would have been fenland or marshland," Tinsley explains. "The moisture retentiveness of these soils is the critical issue; they do not give up moisture easily—and therefore the crops don't suffer stress. "

The real secret to its success is its grade I silt land; Lincolnshire has the country's greatest proportion, with the majority situated around England's largest estuary—The Wash—located in the southeast corner, on the Norfolk border. Here a series of dykes, not hedgerows separate the giant, flat fields, making them ideal for crop cultivation—in particular potatoes.

Several different varieties flourish on these fertile plains, before making their way to prepacking facilities, markets and restaurants, and, of course, our numerous fish and chip shops. But why is this

Head Pumpkin

Lincolnshire is also the home to Europe's largest pumpkin farm. David Bowman grows 3 to 4 million of the giant veg each year on fields around Spalding, supplying supermarkets up and down the country

due to Lincolnshire's fine silt soils, which are ideal for growing the gourd. Every year his home town hosts a vibrant pumpkin festival, culminating in a torch-lit parade featuring a pumpkin carriage and hundreds of schoolchildren carrying their homemade Jack O'Lanterns—all carved from pumpkins donated by farmer Bowman.

Pick a pumpkin, from among several million in the patch.

vegetable crop so successful? The complex landscape owes its fertility to the simple fact that much of it remained underwater for many centuries.

Numerous civilizations have played a part in shaping this rural landscape over the years. The Romans were the first to attempt to control water levels by building a sea wall along the inner Fen margin. In the Middle Ages, the monks followed in their footsteps, with their own attempts to set up a comprehensive drainage system. The most profound change came in the 17th century, when Dutch engineers straightened the wayward rivers, creating new linear links and sluicing them against tidal inflow.

Today the fens drain toward The Wash; characteristically the low-lying levels rarely pass the 10-meter contour, typically varying by little more than by one or two meters over many miles. Much of Lincolnshire remains below sea level, relying on pumped drainage and the control of sluices at high and low tides to maintain agricultural viability. Nevertheless, food and farming are big business; estimated to contribute around £1 billion annually to its economy, in terms of both value and employment, the sector is the county's third biggest, employing more than 32,000 people.

World-class packing and processing businesses support the food production. The majority of the agricultural output remains in the UK, apart from some wheat and oilseeds that are exported

ABOVE AND LEFT: ALISON PRARL, LINCOLNSHIRE NFU; RIGHT: DAVID BOWMAN

4,

to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says Alison Pratt, of the National Farmers Union. Spalding and Boston are home to the main production, processing, packing and distribution facilities; most of the produce goes to retailers and some to multinational companies such as Bakkavor, which produce salads and coleslaws for the supermarket chains.

Nothing is left to chance, however, and the county constantly works hard to promote its wares. In 2005 the Select Lincolnshire project was set up in a government drive to ensure UK farming maintained a sustainable future. With financial backing from Lincolnshire County Council, the membership-based project incorporates every level of agricultural business, from small cheese-makers to distribution companies and huge vegetable producers, as well as packers employing hundreds of staff. To help promote a strong, recognizable brand, it showcases the range and quality of Lincolnshire produce.

Lincolnshire's farming operations are diverse. Statistics from Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), show there are 4,245 farms across Lincolnshire, from one-man bands on small-holdings, to family firms made up of fathers and sons (some dating back several generations), to massive corporations working thousands of acres of land, both owned and rented.

The average farm is around 320 acres, and 85

percent of the land is farmed in holdings greater then 250 acres. Lincolnshire growers produce around 540,000 acres of wheat, grown on 39 percent of the county's arable land (12 percent of the entire country's). Oilseed rape is another big crop; 202,000 acres are dedicated to its production, much of which is being developed for nonfood use such as biodiesel and bioethanol.

The ruler-straight fen lands are also ideally suited to pea production. Grower co-operative Fen Peas Ltd. was formed in 1968 by four farmers in the Boston area, who initially grew 600 acres, operating five viners, 12 hours' a day. Today it grows 5,200 acres of peas countywide— from Waddington in the north, Holbeach in the east, to Market Deeping in the south and Grantham in the east—supplying companies specializing in both frozen and canning peas; all from a grower base of 78 farmer members, using four modern harvesters.

Sown from early February to mid-May and harvested mid-June to mid-August, the co-op produces garden peas (small to medium-sized and produced to a high quality, which once harvested are frozen in less than 150 minutes to ensure they are processed in their prime), Petit Pois and other organic and economy varieties. The co-op says the Lincolnshire soil is perfect as its fineness allows for fast drainage, which prevents water logging.

During the past few years, the unruly climate has done little to help Lincolnshire's farmers. The wettest summer for a century in 2012 left many crops decimated with acute shortages in some areas. Nonetheless, no matter what Lincolnshire veg graces your plate, the taste will be second to none.

                SEPTEMBER      BRITISH HERITAGE • 33

LONDON ON THE MOVE:

Getting About the City Like a Native

On one of the world's great public transport systems you move around London at the swipe of an Oyster

BY JAMES GRAHAM

2533

The completion of theHE FIRST-TIME VISITOR to London, London Overgroundeven the hardy regular, can easily hail one train network means

of the city's iconic black cabs to take them that locals and visitors

across the metropolis. Although cabs are

wildering. This is partly because the Transport for London (TfL) maps of Underground and bus routes have the complexity of a Jackson Pollock masterpiece. Factor in river services, trains, a newly-established cable car connection, and hailing a cab can suddenly seem a very attractive and obvious solution. Bypassing public transport, though, visitors miss two of the most recent innovations to cut through the spaghettilike complexity of moving around the capital: the London Overground and the Oyster Card.

The five-year old Overground, not to be confused with the 150-year-old Underground, is the new kid on the railroad block and has opened up much of London to easier access. Late last year, the service was crowned with a "round London" service, a rail "M25" that echoes the advantages offered by the

36 BRITISH HERITAGE SEPTEMBER 2013

1M25 expressway in getting around the wider swathes of outer London.

Launched with the tagline "London's new train set," the 54 miles of route are worth exploring in themselves. The routes utilize distinctive orange and whiteliveried rolling stock and allow passengers to visit the outer reaches of the city without going through the crowded center city. The trains are also fully air-conditioned, for those rare English summer days that threaten the mercury.

Running from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction to complete the circle, passengers from South and

South West London can now easily reach Canada Water, Wapping and Stratford without traversing the center. Passengers in the other direction can access North London destinations from Clapham Junction, avoiding central London's congestion.

Take the Overground for a number of attractions awkward to reach otherwise. Try the Horniman Museum (Forest Hill), which illustrates the natural and cultural world through world-class collections established by Victorian tea trader Frederick Horniman. The Museum of Methodism (Shoreditch High Street) tells the history of Methodism from John

Wesley to the present day, while the Freud Museum (Hampstead Heath) is the last home of the founder of psychoanalysis.

© TRANSPORT FOR LONDON

Swiping through

There may be a mystery as to the derivation of its name, but Londoners now routinely ask each other if they have "an oyster?" This is not, of course, a piscine inquiry into a bivalve mollusc with a rough irregular shell; instead, it is the familiar manner in which the locals have morphed the Oyster Card into everyday parlance.

In the decade since its launch, the omnipresent "ping as the card is read on buses, tram stops, Underground and train stations has become a background sound of London. For the visitor the ping also represents a keen saving on some of the eye-watering fares that face the non-Oyster holder, as well as the speed of passing through stations and onto public transport without having to queue for tickets.

Take an Underground journey between two zone 1 stations without an Oyster and you pay £4.50. The same journey with an Oyster costs £2.10. The card can be used on Underground, Overground, bus, DLR, tram, cable car, some river services and national railroad services within the six central London travel zones.

To ensure you pay the correct fare on Tube, DLR, London Overground and National Rail services you must always touch in on the yellow card reader at the start of your journey and touch out at the end of the journey.

abandoned docks in the 1980s was the building of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). This network of automated driverless trains has been the foundation of the extraordinary development of Canary Wharf. Visitors can take the DLR to visit Canary Wharf, the Cutty Sark and maritime Greenwich, ExCel London, London City Airport or Woolwich Arsenal.

On the buses

London Buses manages one of the world's largest bus networks. Approximately 7,500 iconic red buses carry

money at many locations away from Underground, Overground and railroad stations at some 4,000 Oyster Ticket Stops located across London in newsagents and grocery stores as well as at Travel Information Centers. Simply charge up the card and hit the network. Fares will be deducted every time you swipe. Visitors to London can purchase the cards online prior to travelling from the Visitor Oyster shop and at overseas sales agents such as Visit Britain.

                                                                                                                                                                                     SEPTEMBER                    BRITISH HERITAGE • 37

UNDERGROUND

more than 6 million passengers daily on a network serving 19,500 bus stops in the capital.

London's much-loved Routemaster buses were a major feature of the capital from the mid-1950s until 2005. Technology, and the switch to one-person op-

 access to hundreds of extra stations, lines and bus routes in the capital. Buy one for the peak period and you will have to pay £16.40, so a few extra hours in bed will be a great cost saving.

Taking to the river

Old Father Thames might drift leisurely through London's center to the sea, but he provides an unexpectedly lively means of getting about from a network

38 BRITISH HERITAGE SEPTEMBER 2013

KPMG Thames Clippers, the fastest and most frequent fleet on the river, provides high-speed catamarans that leave the major piers on both sides of the river every 20 minutes with transport interchanges easily accessible from most piers. There is 10 percent off single tickets with Oyster on the Thames Clippers, while travelcard holders get a third off single tickets. For the sightseer, the company's River Roamer ticket allows passengers unlimited hop-on hop-off for a day's travel from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Friday.

Cable car

A curiosity of London's public transport network, Emirates Air Line arrived on the scene to provide an unlikely link over the Thames between the Greenwich peninsula, with its entertainment hub of the 02 stadium, and east London. A year later, the jury is still out on whether this is a valuable addition to London's transport system or a £60 million politician's folly.

The UK's first urban cable car takes passengers across the Thames seven days a week until 8 p.m. in winter and 9 p.m. in summer. Oyster cards receive a 25 perTRANSPORT FOR LONDON

On the edge of south London is the capital's only tram system, a delightfully modern take on the Victorian tram. Connecting Wimbledon through Croydon to Beckenham in Kent, the line runs through pastoral scenery. Alight at Phipps Bridge to take in the beautiful gardens at Morden Hall Park. Alternatively, visit Beckenham, a lovely Victorian center.

Running a railroad

London has an extensive network of suburban railroads serving all suburbs and the center from some 357 stations. Oyster Cards are accepted on most of the services within the city. The trains are generally clean, fast and convenient outside of the rush hours. Rail services generally operate from 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. during the week.

Unravelling the knot

So when should you travel on London's public transport? Like cities worldwide, London has a rush-hour that is best avoided. Travel after 9:30 Monday to and leave between 4 and 7 p.m. This traffic is almost exclusively into and out of Zone 1 and Docklands. Travel in any other direction and you can find trains and buses Rickshaws surprisingly emptier than you might On the streets of the West End

to be a low crime environment. Cur- pedicabs, even exotic Tuk Tuks from the Indian subcontinent. rently, more than 10 million passengers

These tourist transport methtravel on the TfL's public transport servods really are to be avoided at ices each day with very few ever expe-all costs. The spoilsport of the riencing or witnessing crime, which matter is that they are unregu-

itself has seen an eight-year declinelated and uninsured. These vesince the middle of the last decade. This hides are unmetered and translates into a transport system that isclients are at the mercy of opsafer than its equivalents in almost allerators who knowingly charge other European cities. eye-watering fares.

Next time you are about to raise your arm to hail that black cab, pull it down and make for the nearest bus top, Underground or Overground station or DLR stop. You might end up seeing more of London than you expected.

                                                                                                                                                        SEPTEMBER BRITISH HERITAGE • 39

Richard Burton:

THE VOICE OF WALES

How the Valleys Made the Voice and the Man

A Portrait Bench on the hillside between the old South Wales mining villages of Cwmafan and Pontrhydyfen is a welcome place to sit and survey the mountainous Afan Forest Park scenery. Ahead stand several cast-iron life-sized figures of local boys made good, among them actor Richard Burton; to the right is an audio post. Turn the handle and magic happens.

BY SIAN ELLIS

Out comes the most mellifluous, gravelly-deep voice; inflected by a Welsh village childhood, burnt by smoke, cultured by intellect. It's Burton reciting from Under Milk Wood, the "Play for Voices" by his favorite poet and friend Dylan

Thomas. Another handle-turn and

That's Richard Burton on the right with two other "local lads who made good" from the Man Valley.

BELOW: SIAN ELLIS; FACING

PAGE: DANA HUNTLEY

the voice rages into Thomas's poem "Do not go gentle into that good night. "

Burton's has been hailed as the greatest voice of the English language; it's certainly the iconic voice of Wales, no more so than when melded with the lilting prose and poetry of Thomas. Burton became "First Voice" for Under Milk Wood in its original BBC radio broadcast in 1954, a role he famously reprised in the 1972 film adaptation.

Yes, he became a star of stage and screen, at one time the highest paid actor in Hollywood, with seven Oscar nominations from 1952 to 1977. He fulfilled the charismatic archetype, boozing, carousing and marrying five times—twice with Elizabeth Taylor, making them the

Burton lived in two different houses on Caradoc Street with his sister and her family, a typical residential scene in the south Welsh Valleys.

At the Richard Burton Memorial in Talbot Park, where Burton spent much time as a boy, the flowerbed was designed by kids from his old school.

Locals filled Bethel Chapel for a memorial service to Burton in 1984.

42 BRITISH HERITAGE SEPTEMBER 2013

hottest couple of their time; their stars co-habit the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He made films such as Cleopatra, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and he excelled as a Shakespearean stage actor. But underlying it all, it is the voice that captivates.

Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins on November 10, 1925 in Pontrhydyfen, three miles north of Port Talbot. Today, it's just a few minutes' drive from the M4 motorway, but you're quickly plunged into the narrow Afan Valley and no little sense of a time warp. Two walking trails—recently created with the help of Burton's family and friends—lead you on a ramble through his upbringing.

The three-mile Birthplace Trail wanders around Pontrhydyfen at the lower end of the Afan Valley, whose string of villages developed as coal and metal mining boomed. The monolithic 19thcentury railway viaduct and aqueduct, bestriding the confluence of the Afan and Pelenna rivers in the steep-sided village, remain as dramatic legacies: one linked Tonmawr collieries to Port Talbot Dock; the other conveyed water to power the water wheel at Oakwood Ironworks.

Richard was the 12th child of a collier, also named Richard, and his wife Edith: A snippet on one of the signposts along the trail reveals he weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds. His birthplace home stands on the bank of the River Afan, dwarfed by the aqueduct.

Pontrhydyfen has a cozy, small-world feel, and older folk still remember "Richie" with fondness. There's the Miners' Arms where his hard-drinking father hung out and at the top of the village is Bethel Chapel, now in disrepair, where hundreds of locals and no few celebrities gathered for a memorial service following Burton's death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1984. The actor lived as a tax exile in Switzerland, and it's there that he is buried, but in the graveyard of Pontrhydyfen's Jerusalem Chapel his name has been added to his parents' gravestone.

A pleasant stroll leads to the Portrait Bench where the sound box of Burton's recitals has been played some 21 ,000 times in the first 18 months alone.

Burton's mother died shortly after giving birth to his brother Graham (who to this day lives in Cwmafan). Two-year-old Richard was sent from his Welsh-speaking home in Pontrhydyfen to live with his sister Celia and her husband Elfed a few miles away in Taibach, a district of Port Talbot, where English speaking predominated. The 1.5-mile Burton Childhood Trail traces his close-knit community life of chapels and choirs (he won an

ALL PHOTOS BY SIÂN ELLIS

eisteddfod prize as a boy soprano), park and rugby.

At the Taibach Library he indulged his passion for literature, and as his diaries, published last year, reveal, he was an ardent cinema-goer. Eastern Primary School, which he attended, looks down on Port Talbot steelworks, still a major employer in the town. He later went to Port Talbot Secondary School (now Dyffryn Comprehensive School), though he left at 16 when money was tight to work in the Co-op as a gentleman's outfitter.

o far, so ordinary for a local lad with small town prospects and horizons hemmed by the surrounding hills. Yet by a stroke of fortune he was encouraged back to school, and the schoolmaster Philip Burton (among others), recognizing his talent, nurtured his acting. Young Richie Jenkins lodged in the

The Pontrhydyfen Aqueduct spans the Man Valley across two rivers.

a Welshman from the valleys can achieve," he would explain.

It's a sentiment with no little significance in a post-coal Valleys economy that looks for inspiration. Where Burton blazed a trail, other locals followed—both Sir Anthony Hopkins and Martin Sheen have acknowledged his influence. Cedric Burden, deputy head of Dyffryn Lower School (who happened to be around as I peered through the railings of Burton's old playground), said the actor remains a figure that helps "to show our children that anything is possible." Children from Burton's primary and secondary schools were closely involved in the creation of the trails.

Up the Afan Valley at Afan Lodge in Duffryn Rhondda, I had a similar conversation about heroes and aspirations with propri-

up Brombil Mountain for voice drills reciting Shakespeare, teaching him to project rather than shout his lines. And so the voice with its "gem-cutting precision" was honed. The mountain looms above Talbot Memorial Park, where a flowerbed titled "lights, camera, action," has been dedicated to the actor. Read also his poem about the Valleys and their influence on him—language and literature were his abiding loves.

Throughout his career, Burton cherished his roots. It was written into his contracts that he would not work on St. David's Day (March 1st) and when he died he was buried in a red suit, with a copy of Dylan Thomas's Complete Poems. He had frequently revisited Pontrhydyfen and Taibach, arriving in a flash car—then hopping out to play with the local kids. "I was just saying this is what point of entertainment for villages around. During one concert, young Richie Jenkins first performed in a competition, along with his brother Graham. A dedicated Richard Burton bedroom now occupies the site of the stage and you'll find a scrapbook of Burton memorabilia, as well as another of his unpublished poems behind the bar.

To celebrate Burton's passion for language and his links with Afan Lodge, the Davies are seeking to promote local young talented writers—currently, award-winning reflections on "Humanity" by Sadie Jarrett hang in the Richard Burton Room. "It's to continue the creative legacy; it's so important to encourage aspirations," Louise said. If the actor were here he would give full voice to that.

SEPTEMBER 2013 BRITISH HERITAGE • 43

MIND THE HISTORY AT

KENILWOR-TsHt

The role of the steward hasn't changed that much over the centuries

BY DANA HUNTLEY

Broken, but unbowed, Kenilworth's ramparts tower over the town and countryside.

© IMAGESEUROPE/ALAMY

Kenilworth. The name even sounds romantic.

Stratford-upon-Avon, the Warwickshire market town and its famous castle receives about 120,000 visitors a year. "We want to make their visit as interesting as possible," says Garner. "If they just come in to look at ruined stone, then it doesn't mean anything to them. With people like me here, we can enliven the history and help them see what they're looking at." While the castle had been around a while, it was King John who gave Kenilworth the fortifications and the shape we see today during a massive rebuilding program in 1210-1216. Then, Henry Ill granted Kenilworth to Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, in 1244. De Montfort led the opposition to the king in the Second Barons War (and called the first elected Parliament), and Kenilworth was his command and control center. After de Montfort's death at the Battle of Evesham, surviving rebels retreated to Kenilworth. The king's forces laid siege, and the Siege of Kenilworth (1266) became the longest in British history, lasting six months until a negotiated surrender.

In the 1320s, Kenilworth belonged to the ill-fated King Edward Il, who was deposed by his wife, Isabella of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer. The poor king, who was a poor king, signed his abdication in the Great Hall at Kenilworth in 1326—shortly being murdered in Berkeley Castle.

John of Gaunt, third son of King Edward Ill, (and England's second richest man) inherited the castle with his marriage. It quickly became the most important of the 30 or so castles he held. John

I ll

Tom Garner (left) never knows what the day will bring. He might be answering questions in the huge medieval barn that is now a café filled with displays, or tidying up in the Elizabethan gatehouse, below, that was used as a private residence until the 1930s.

PHOTOS BY DANA HUNTLEY

of Gaunt rebuilt the fortress yet again, expanding the Great Hall, adding towers, the state apartments and a new kitchen range in 1373-1380, and largely retired there in his later years. The castle remained a Lancastrian stronghold throughout the 15th-century Wars of the Roses, and passed with the throne to King Henry VII and his Tudor heirs.

Ultimately, Henry Vlll's daughter, Queen Elizabeth, ceded Kenilworth to her childhood companion and lifelong favorite, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. With an eye to impressing Elizabeth, Leicester undertook an extensive program of modernization, particularly to attract the Queen's visits on her annual summer progresses around the country.

In due course, the Queen visited Kenilworth four times, the last in 1575, when the full range of Leicester's dramatic rebuilding, including a recently restored Elizabethan garden, could be seen to full advantage. As was customary, the Queen was accompanied by more than 400 nobles and court retainers, and they all stayed for 19 days, during which time Leicester was expected to feast and entertain the lot. It nearly bankrupted him, but the visit was regarded a huge success.

By the time of Queen Elizabeth I, of course, gunpowder and the power of siege cannon had altered the castle's role from defensive fortress to showcase of wealth and economic power. Leicester transformed the castle from a military fortress into a palace fit for a queen. Two generations later, during the Civil War Kenilworth saw its last military gasp as a Royalist stronghold. Parliament prevailed, and in 1649 ordered the slighting of the castle, destroying parts of the battlements and outer bailey.

During its four centuries of activity, the Lord of the Castle would have been absent from Kenilworth far more than he was present. Somebody had to keep the operation going, plan for times of its occupation and run the household when the Lord and his retinue were "at home." That was the job of the high office of castle steward. The steward ran a skeleton crew in the "off season," showed around occasional visi-

48 BRITISH HERITAGE SEPTEMBER 2013

tors, maintained the fabric of the castle and made all preparation for the house parties and family gatherings. In the current Downton Abbey parlance, the steward was a glorified Carson; a butler plus estate manager.

Recent history has been kind to Kenilworth Castle. Sir Walter Scott's novel of 1821 depicting Queen Elizabeth's 1575 visit, Kenilworth, popularized the fortress for Victorian visitors and generated the first conservation work on the castle. While the castle remained in private hands into the late 1930s, the Grade I-Iisted site made its way to the public trust and since 1984 has been managed by English Heritage.

The castle may have changed in form and function over the centuries, but someone still has to look after the place, and the job of the steward actually hasn't changed that much.

Tom Garner's master's degree in medieval studies from King's College, London, gives him the academic background for his caretaker role. "English Heritage used to call us 'property custodians,' but 'steward' sounds a little more Tolkienesque," Garner laughs. "Whatever you call it, he's someone who is doing all the work for his Lords. "

After working at Kenilworth for a year, Garner waxes enthusiastic about his role. "Every day is different; I never know what I'll be doing," says Garner. "Most of the people who work here are very keen on the history. "

The town spreading out below Kenilworth's ramparts is also hometown to Garner. The Warwickshire native comes by his local interest naturally. "I'm even related to Shakespeare," he adds. "My father was a very keen historian, so I grew up with it. I was dragged to castles all over England during school holidays, and it took."

In addition to the general castle tours that Garner and his fellow stewards offer to visitors, several of them provide specialized tours on specific periods of Kenilworth's history. Garner's special interest subject is King Henry V.

It's the diversity of the role, however, and the curiosity of the historian, who never knows what new discovery will come next, that fuel Garner's passion. "You've got a lot of English history in one place," he says shaking his head with a smile. If you happen to be in the Kenilworth neighborhood, stop by to meet Garner. He and his fellow stewards would be happy to show you around.

One of Tom Garner's fellow stewards points out the ranges that Robert Dudley had constructed in a little "home improvement" for Queen Elizabeth I's visit in 1574.

PHOTOS BY DANA HUNTLEY

taking care at

St. Tiggywinkles

Inside Britain's pioneering wildlife hospital

STORY AND PHOTOS BY SUSIE KEARLEY

HE SOUNDS OF SMALL WILD ANIMALS fill the air as you walk into St. Tiggywinkles' visitor center in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire: This is Britain's most famous wildlife hospital.

Set up by Les and Sue Stocker in 1978, the hospital began in a small garden shed at the couple's home in Aylesbury. Over the next 35 years, it grew exponentially.

Les Stocker remembers their very first casualty: "We came across this injured wood pigeon, took him in, nursed him back to health, and returned him to the wild. It was something I had always wanted to do and our activities grew from there. "

This early accomplishment gave them the confidence to take in more injured wildlife, and as their successes grew, so did their reputation. People started to bring small frightened animals from all around Buckinghamshire to the hospital and it became clear from these early encounters with wild creatures, that the problem was widespread. From these small beginnings, The Wildlife Hospital Trust was born.

"Back in 1985 we had a very Even hedgehogs have busy year," said Stocker. "So medical conditions. many hedgehogs were brought

The garden shed where Sue and Les Stocker (below) began treating wild animals in 1978 still stands at St. Tiggywinkles.

into the hospital that a specialist unit had to be set up and that's how the hospital got its name. We called it St. Tiggywinkles after the Beatrix Potter character.

"Our small shed and aviaries were taking in a growing number of animals and we peaked at almost 2,000 animals a year, at which point it became unmanageable. So, we decided we needed a proper wildlife hospital and started collecting bric-a-brac and having stalls every weekend to raise money for a hospital building. We also managed to get some corporate sponsorship.

Les, Sue and their supporters, worked tirelessly to make their dream a reality and their efforts paid off. The new hospital building in Haddenham was officially opened by H.R.H. Princess Alexandra in 1991.

The flow of casualties grew from a trickle to a torrent. People were relieved that there was somewhere to take sick and injured wildlife, and the number of animals brought in rose to more than 4,000 each year. The species arriving at the hospital were getting bigger—injured deer and swans were being brought in by caring members of the public.

This situation called for specialist equipment and techniques. Stocker explained: "Our pioneering wildlife rehabilitation work resulted in the development of a deer stretcher, an orthopedic suite, a hedgehog unrolling apparatus and hedgehog diagnostics. We developed the practice of rearing orphans on goats' milk and colostrum, and used intravenous nutrition on deer. We also now have a bespoke deer hoist and wild animal rescue kits.

"The Trust is accepted as one of the leading authorities on hedgehogs in the world, and has become known for its pioneering work with other species too— particularly badgers and owls. We have successfully treated most species of wild animal, bird, reptile and amphibian. In handling such a wide variety of species, with different dietary and housing requirements, we have taken our wildlife rehabilitation skills to a new level of expertise and developed our understanding. It has made us experts in our field. We work with other hospitals around the world in developing treatments and sharing knowledge. Our published work is used in wildlife hospitals worldwide to provide benchmarks for the treatment of wildlife."

Pioneering Veterinary Procedures

Fractured bones in birds, small mammals and amphibians have presented a real challenge—even to the specialist staff at St. Tiggywinkles. Many of the injuries presented are infected, and these types of casualties are new to wildlife rehabilitation protocols, making St.

Tiggywinkles pioneers in identifying the best procedures for treating each species.

An orthopaedic suite at the hospital contains the skeletons of different animals, providing reference material for surgeons operating on fractures. The skulls, for example, enable surgeons to see how each animal's jaw line should be set, so they can work with a full understanding of the small differences between different species. This helps them to correctly stabilize broken jaws and beaks, and all manner of techniques are used to suit particular cases. They also use state-of-the-art digital x-ray equipment, so the images are available very quickly in emergency situations. If an infection is under control, most bird limb fractures will heal within two or three weeks, while mammals take at least six weeks to recover.

Specially designed wildlife hospitals have existed in the United States for some time, but St. Tiggywinkles was the first such hospital in Europe. The Brits have caught up fast, developing specialist techniques and becoming pioneers in many aspects of wildlife rescue.

The intensive care wing of the hospital can accommodate up to 20 badgers, foxes, swans or deer, and 100 hedgehogs at any one time. It also has the flexibility to cope with other many other casualties, including bats, shrews or owls. There is a unit devoted to removing oil from birds, and they have developed the first orthopaedic cradle for injured birds.

St. Tiggywinkles provides hands-on instruction in wildlife care for the veterinary profession, as well as courses for lay people. The Trust also invented the first hedgehog unrolling apparatus and discovered that hedgehog fleas, archaeopsylla erinacei, only lived on hedgehogs and do not go onto pets.

St. Tiggywinkles also evolved the accepted system of rearing orphans on goats' milk and colostrum (which is particularly important for a baby's developing immune system), and staff at the hospital have identified a number of previously unknown medical conditions affecting hedgehogs. These include pop-off syndrome where the hedgehog cannot curl up because a muscle has slipped into the wrong position, disabling the hedgehog; balloon syndrome, where the hedgehog bloats up like a balloon with trapped air and needs deflating; dental and tooth decay; seasonal lung worm; myasis (fly strike); and zinc deficiency.

The hospital developed the world's first deer stretcher to alleviate the trauma of being handled for injured deer, and introduced intravenous nutrition, previously used only in human medicine, to feed injured deer too weak to feed themselves.

The Visitor Experience

Most of the animals treated at the hospital are eventually returned to the wild, but some have missing limbs or other disabilities, and some are just too old and frail to be released after treatment.

The Visitor Centre at the Hospital is a sanctuary for all those animals too badly injured to be released back into their natural habitat. For some, it is a temporary home while they recover, but for others, it is a risk-free environment where they can safely live out the rest of their lives. Thousands of people visit the center every year to see the animals, hear the talks, and learn about the work of the hospital.

There is a huge aviary for recovering Red Kites. These birds of prey were reintroduced into the Chiltern Hills 20 years ago and the breeding program has been very successful. Inevitably, however, the odd casualty occurs and St. Tiggywinkles is on hand to help.

Inside the hospital is a viewing area where visitors can see baby hedgehogs, birds, rabbits and injured

squirrels receiving care. Nearby, is the hedgehog enclosure for those who cannot be safely released back into the wild. Some are blind, others juveniles, and there is an albino among them who is too conspicuous to be set free.

Visitors can see badgers, foxes, deer, wildfowl, ravens, and numerous other forms of wildlife, but they don't all stick around for the shrill tones of children. You have to be quiet, patient and have luck on your side, because many are nocturnal, and they're all prone to hiding!

St. Tiggywinkles welcomes herons, cranes, bats, owls and all manner of winged creatures.

Badgers are normally nocturnal and quite unsocial, but this one has obviously found a caring friend.

cheessay         e!

BY DANA-HUNTLEY

Paired with bread, fruit and red wine, this beautiful wedge of Stilton looks almost good enough to eat!

© John Geoghegan / Alamy

HEESE, GLORIOUS CHEESE. It's one of Britain's oldest and most delicious foods—made and enjoyed on our sceptered isle since before history began. The dairy product that condenses the nutrition of milk into delectable, flavorful variations sustained peer and peasant alike through the centuries.

flower cheese. For afters, a cheese board with delightful offerings from a mild Caerphilly to a pungent Dorset Blue Vinney or a Sage Derby with grapes and biscuits. Then, perhaps a bit of port and Stilton?

As with most foods, the English rep-

The ubiquitous Ploughman's Lunch has fortified the populace in one form or another since medieval times: a chunk of bread and another of cheese taken to the fields for the midday's nourishing repast. Today, that cheese might be as commonly plated with fruit for lunch, or make its way into every course of dinner, from goats' cheese in a salad, to sauce for a chicken or fish to cauliutation for cheese lags behind that of its French neighbors. In fact, while France boasts 350 different cheeses, England produces more than 750 distinct cheeses today, crafted in creameries and farmhouse dairies from Cornwall to Cumbria.

In the capital, you can sample and acquire English cheeses at Neal's Yard Dairy in Covent Garden. In fact, British cheeses are all they stock, and their specialty is a great range of delectable Cheddars. Or, 200 miles north, pop in to The Cheeseboard in Harrogate, where they stock 200 varieties of cheese, most of them English. Here in the gateway to the Dales, the local favorite is predictably Wensleydale.

CHEDDAR

While "cheddar" cheese is produced throughout the world, Cheddar is a decidedly English cheese, and certainly the most popular. It takes its name from its Somerset source, in Cheddar Gorge. The original Cheddar cheese company still makes the eponymous cheese today. And while terrific Cheddars are produced in farmhouses and commercial creameries around the country, there is some argument that, properly speaking, Cheddar is a Somerset cheese.

Good Cheddar is always crumbly if it is being aged properly. Joseph Harding, called "the father of Cheddar cheese," described the ideal Cheddar as "close and firm in texture, mellow in character or quality, rich with a tendency to melt in the mouth and has a full and fine flavor somewhat like hazelnut." Maturing 9 to 24 months, the cheese gets sharper with age.

DOUBLE GLOUCESTER

First produced in Gloucester in 1498, Double Gloucester is a Cotswold cheese, still made principally in Gloucestershire today. It is a full-fatted, hard cheese, made with whole milk, distinguished from Single Gloucester made from skimmed milk. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Double Gloucester variety has more flavor. As the local favorite, it is wheels of Double

Select a nice bit of Double Gloucester (above) at The Cheeseboard in Harrogate, or range through a plethora of British cheeses at Neals Yard Dairy in Covent Garden (below).

Gloucester that careen down the hill at the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling.

Double Gloucester is aged four months, but traditionally eaten as a young cheese, while it retains a buttery texture and a mild, but pronounced, nutty flavor. This is a great cheese to accompany a real ale or a young red wine, and is a wonderful choice to accompany cold meats on a fresh baguette.

STILTON

One of the few world-famous British cheeses, Stilton has been called "the King of Cheeses" for generations. It is the only English cheese that has EU-protected name status and a certification trademark. Stilton cheese can be produced only in the counties of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and is actually made at six creameries in those counties.

The strong, blue-veined cheese develops its hard, crumbly rind while aging, and remains soft and moist in its interior. Stilton has been traditionally paired with sherry or port, perhaps with a few walnuts. It also goes down a treat with a pear or apple, or a crusty role and butter. In recent years, Stilton has found a popular pairing in soup with broccoli, and in a pungent cream sauce for steak.

WENSLEYDALE

Yes, celebrated by Wallace and Gromit, Wensleydale takes its name from the longest and most famous of the Yorkshire Dales. The only place Wensleydale cheese is made today is the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, deep into the dale near the Pennines. Farms throughout the valley provide the milk, while the creamery (employing 200 people) produces five tons of Wensleydale cheese a day.

The creamery actually makes 24 varieties of cheese, all available to sample in their visitors' center tasting room. The most popular is the traditional semi-hard

Here is a lovely version of broccoli-Stilton soup without cream.

white cheese, mild yet piquant, with a lingering aftertaste. Next in popularity is the mature variety, like (10) most firm cheeses developing piquancy as it ages. As a semi-hard, mild cheese, however, Wensleydale has proven a perfect cheese to infuse with apricot and walnut, for instance, cranberry or blueberry, to make an elegant dessert cheese.

CHESHIRE

Produced in the county of Cheshire and neighboring Welsh and English counties, Cheshire may be the oldest cheese in Britain. Legend has that it has been made since the Romans were here, and it was mentioned in the 1 Ith-century Domesday Book. The firm, white cheese ages cloth-wrapped and develops a natural rind.

Milkier than many cheeses, Cheshire is firm, white and crumbly as a young cheese—aromatic, but mild. Aged Cheshire darkens and hardens into a highly flavored cheese without bitterness. With a much lower salt content than many cheeses, Cheshire is a great cheese to crumble on fruit or to use in vegetable dishes. Red Cheshire is a variant with annatto added to create a deep orange color, but does not affect either taste or texture. Blue Cheshire is a variety ripened with classic penicillium mold for added sharpness and flavor.

Brocco/i-Sti/t0'1 Soup

- 2 tbsp. Jive odor butter

- 1 onion — choppedor "iced

- 1 stalk ce/erg — choppedor

- 1 mediumpotato — diced

- 1 qt. chicken stock

- 1 headbrocco/i (about 1 /b.) — rough/U chopped

— 4 oz. Sti/t0'1 cheese

- 2 dashes (Mackpepper; dry mustard& 'IL'tmeg

Heat the oi/ñl (argesaucepan am/adL/0'1ions L"lti/ soft. AM ce/erg am/potato. Cover am/simmer a few minutes over medium heat. 74M stock am/ chopped brocco/i sta/k. Simmer 10-15 minutes. AMrest a coup/e ofminutes.

Then, b/itz in b/em/er orfoodprocessor to coarse puree. Return touent/e heat am/stir in Sti/tð'l.

Season with Wack peppeç nutmeg am/ dry mustard. Between the chicken stock am/Stilton, /itt/e sa/t wi// be needed. Reserve bits ofbrocco/i flowerets am/crmnb/es ofSti/ton togarm•s/l.

Makesfoaryenerous servings — at 011/3 340 ca/ories each.

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Beyond the Bookshelf

9

The Royal Opera House

© LOOP IMAGES LTD/ALAMY

Opening to Bow Street and the cobbled squares of Covent Garden, the Royal Opera House has been a London landmark since 1858.

to ticket holders. Backstage tours offer insight into what preparations are necessary for a live performance. Depending on the day a tour may stop by a rehearsal room where the Royal Ballet is going through its exercises, while another may enter rooms where props and costumes are being made for an upcoming opera. Some tours focus on the architecture of the Royal Opera House and the luxurious theater itself which has a seating capacity of 2,257 in a horseshoe shape on four levels.

Enter the Royal Opera House from the Covent Garden piazza and the gift shop is there on the left hand side with appealing items adorning its windows. Some items in the shop will be of immediate interest to opera lovers, while others like the beautiful damask travel bags and pieces of jewSEPTEMBER 2013 BRITISH HERITAGE • 59

Beyond the Bookshelf

elry will catch everyone's attention. Just beyond the shop is the Box Office where tickets can be booked for performances as well as for one of the organized tours. Throughout the year free exhibitions celebrating individuals, significant moments, and the history of the Royal Opera House are on display in the costume cases and the Amphitheatre Gallery.

Finally, of course, it is opera and ballet that beckon people night after night to this world famous venue. While opera ticket prices have long been associated with those at the top end of the economic bracket, today's Royal Opera House is making a strong effort to include a wider population with many seats at each performance

The Many Not the Few: The Stolen History of the Battle of Britain by Richard North, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York,

464 pages, hardcover, $30

AMONG THE MOST FAMOUS quotes surviving from World War Il are Winston Churchill's immortal words, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Churchill's testimony to the courageous efforts and sacrifice of the RAF pilots who defended Britain against the onslaught of the German Luftwaffe has virtually defined the narrative history of the Battle of Britain.

Perhaps that narrative history has been wrong. In an impressive, even impassioned, argument Richard North forces us to reevaluate the way we look at those dark days when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany and fought off the hugely anticipated German invasion of the island. Churchill himself

60 BRITISH HERITAGE SEPTEMBER 2013 priced at £40 and even less. Antonio Pappano, the dynamic conductor and Music Director of the Royal Opera since 2002, offers an inside look at what it is like to work here: "Walking into this building each day knowing that I have a fantastic auditorium, world-class orchestra and chorus and all manner of exciting guest artists, I feel I am the luckiest musician on the planet. We are a family here at the Royal Opera House—we live and breathe opera because we are addicted to its emotional power. "

—Jennifer Dorn

For more information go to www.roh.org.uk

provided the key in his address to the people, June 18, 1940: "Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war." The months of German bombing that followed, of course, were not even principally focused on military targets, but wrecked destruction and life loss across the country—aimed explicitly to break the British people. And they did not break.

It was indeed those "many" and not simply the "few" who saved Britain, North proposes. Day by day, he takes us through the 114 days from July 10 to October 31, 1940 when German bombers flooded the skies over Britain almost without recess. Day after day, the British people crawled out of their Anderson shelters, put out the fires, cleared away the rubble, went to work and made tea—all with a resilience and a stiff-upper-lip that seems almost unfathomable in our more coddled age. The Many Not the Few makes the case convincingly that this was indeed The People's War.

This is a clearly written, inspiring read, and a major new contribution to World War Il history.

The Scarlet Pimpernel starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Ian McKellen, Acorn Media, Silver Spring, Md., approx. 136 minutes, $29.99

MOST BRITISH HERITAGE readers (of a certain age, at least) remember the event that Brideshead Revisited became during its broadcast on PBS in 1983. Among the effects of its popularity, the landmark series made recognizable stars out of Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.

British Heritage was pleased to visit with Anthony Andrews—an avowed British Heritage reader—last year on the 30th anniversary of Brideshead Revisited (May 2012, p. 58).

Broadcast in the States as a miniseries just a year after Brideshead, Anthony Andrews stars in The Scarlet Pimpernel. For the first time, Acorn Media brings this swashbuckling saga of the French Revolution out on DVD. Hurrah! Andrews is at his best playing the duel role as the foppish English baronet Sir Percy Blakeney and the Scarlet Pimpernel, who leads rescue missions to save doomed French aristocrats from the guillotine of France's Reign of Terror with flair and bravado.

Of course, such classic historic romances demand a love interest and a villain to

Lounging petulantly, Jane Seymour plays

Marguerite St. Just, the love of the Pimpernel's life, and, of course, a complication to his work.

COURTESY OF ACORN MEDIA

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Beyond the

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create plenty of conflict. In this case, that's Jane Seymour as high-born French actress Marguerite St. Just (and Sir Percy's grande passion), and Ian McKellen as the cruel sword of Robespierre, Chauvelin, charged with the apprehension of the Pimpernel. Just to mix things up a bit, Chauvelin has his lecherous eye on Marguerite as well.

It's all great fun, and gorgeous eye candy, too. The series won an Emmy for Costume Design and nominations for both Outstanding Drama Special and Art Direction. The Scarlet Pimpernel is certainly must-have action for Andrews fans, and a real treasure for anyone who loves classic period swashbuckling romance.

THE EVERETT COLLECTION

Under Milk Wood starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole, Sundance Home Entertainment, approx. 88 minutes plus interviews and special features. Available from Amazon, $12

SONOROUS, RICHLY TIMBRED and mellifluous, Richard Burton's voice may be the most memorable characteristic of this colorful actor. Burton left a legacy of many films. For the voice itself, however, perhaps the most dramatic is this "small" lowbudget production of Dylan Thomas' verse play Under Milk wood. The melodic cadences of Wales' most famous poet come to life with Burton's narration as First Voice, reminiscent of the Stage Manager in Thorton Wilder's Our Town.

Under Milk Wood tells the story of an ordinary day in the life of a Welsh coastal village, unpacking the angst, ennui and faded ambitions of its citizens, of Rev. Jenkins the vicar, of the muscular women gossiping over the fence, of the local pub habitués and fishermen. It's as simple as it appears. Burton, of course, was the child of such a village, and a tortured poetic soul himself. Burton feels this drama; he is not acting, and his voice infuses into Thomas's lines all the pathos, pain and hope of Wales and its unique people.

Elizabeth Taylor as Rosie Probert and Peter O'Toole as Captain Cat are among the colorful denizens of the Welsh village of Llareggub.

"Eli Jenkins' Prayer" from Under Milk Wood

SET TO THE MUSIC of a haunting Anglican chant, "Eli Jenkins Prayer" (sometimes called "Sunset Poem ") has long been a staple in the repertoire of Welsh Male Voice Choirs. It has also been adopted as the anthem of the Bristol Rugby Club.

Every morning when I wake,

Dear Lord a little prayer I make, O please to keep Thy loving eye

On all poor creatures born to die.

And every evening at sun-down

I ask a blessing on the town,

For whether we last the night or no I'm sure is always touch-and-go.

We are not wholly bad or good

Who live our lives under Milk Wood,

And Thou, I know, wilt be the first

To see our best side, not our worst.

O let us see another day!

Bless us all this night, I pray,

And to the sun we all will bow

And say, good-bye—but just for now!

SEPTEMBER 2013 BRITISH HERITAGE • 63

Anglo-file Tips and tidbits for travel andforfun

The British Heritage

PUZZLER*-

LAST ISSUE WE PUZZLED: "A root vegetable and a flower share the name Ceninen. Perhaps that is why they are both national emblems. We know them better by what names?"

Yes, Wales shares both as its national emblems, the leek and the daffodil. It is traditional to wear one of these as a lapel badge on St. David's Day, March 1st. This year, both of the abundant Welsh flora arrived rather late due to the frigid winter.

THIS ONE MAY SEND SOME FOLKS back to the anthology, but identify this modicum of good sense by author and title:

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go just alike, yet each believes his own. In poets as true genius is but rare,

True taste as seldom is the critics share.

Home

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64 BRITISH HERITAGE SEPTEMBER 2013

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The premier site for planning and dreaming

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Plan your train travel across Britain www.facebook.com/BritishHeritageMagazine Check it out!!

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Comprehensive site of the British Parliament

Keeping ;EažT$EhS in Touch

WE ARE ALWAYS DELIGHTED to hear from British Heritage readers—and to occasionally pass along the enthusiasms and travel tips you share. We would always love to hear if you've used British Heritage in planning your own adventures in Britain.

Our posting address is 19300 Promenade Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176. Most folk these days, however, conveniently email us at [email protected].

TOP LEFT: FOODFOLIO/ALAMY

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't. "

"If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.

"Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, though difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction. "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. "

"It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.

"There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

"You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure. "

                    TOP RIGHT: NILS JORGENSEN/REX/REX USA                                                                                                                                                                                                        SEPTEMBER 2013 BRITISH HERITAGE 65

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Idyllic River Avon flowing through Shakespeare's hometown_of Stratford.

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