In this month’s edition of BRITISH HERITAGE, four writers take on must-see places in Britain. Much of what they writers suggest I agree with though some of the omissions are horribly glaring.
Only two cathedrals makes the list. One is St. Paul’s in London, and the only reason this one makes the grade is that it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. St. Paul’s was brilliantly conceived and is a wonderful monument both to Sir Christopher’s genius (but so is the old naval college at Greenwich) and to the worship of God.
The other cathedral to make the list is York Minster, and not so much for its architecture, but its stained glass. Fair enough. Having been to York Minster, I can testify to its fantastic stained glass, particularly in the rose windows. The medieval walls that spread from the minster make a great walk that can be done in about an hour. They are built upon older, Roman walls, which in spring are covered in daffodils. You cannot take a bad picture of York Minster from the walls.
These aren’t the only two cathedrals in England.
So much for Norman or the three forms of English Gothic. The English did so much more with Perpendicular than the French did with Flamboyant, and wonderful examples abound. Springing to mind is King’s College, Cambridge, which also has the virtue of being near the Cam where you can run over the bridge to take perfect pictures of punters. Another is Wells Cathedral, with the Scissor Arches, a wonderfully elegant engineering solution to a 14th century bishop’s idiocy.
Of course, don’t forget Ely, with its octagonal tower, and Lincoln, which Bishop John Longland protected from Henry VIII’s reformation. For fans of KATHERINE by Anya Seton, Lincoln is also a must-see for the tomb of Katherine, Duchess of Lancaster, and her daughter, Joan, Countess of Westmoreland.
If you want Norman (what the rest of Europe calls Romanesque), then Durham Cathedral is your cathedral. Winchester might be historically more important--it was the capital of the country at one point and certainly held the treasury which the bishop of Winchester held for his brother Henry I who outmaneuvered Robert Curthose for the English throne--but the cathedral is an architectural transition from Norman to Gothic. Winchester Cathedral is also the burial place of Jane Austen.
If you want High Gothic, well, there’s nothing for it save Salisbury or Canterbury. Or if you don’t want to leave London, then Westminster Abbey, which might now be more interesting for who’s buried there than its architecture or the fact it’s a royal peculiar. This last means that the Dean doesn’t answer to either the bishop of London or the archbishop of Canterbury. He is appointed by and answers to the Crown.
I agree completely with the inclusion of the castles of North Wales, all built by Edward I. These include Caernarvon, Conwy, Beaumaris and Harlech. I’ve seen three out of the four, having missed Beaumaris. All of them are huge and imposing. They meant business. Harlech is in the worst shape because it got the hell blown out of it when Prince Hal (aka Henry V) was putting down Owain Glyndwyr’s revolt. About half the castle is gone.
These castles ring Snowdonia, and that means you get to see Mt. Snowdon, too. The mountain’s summit is usually stuck up in the clouds, but you can hike up or take an interesting little train up. If the weather’s bad, take the train.
Now, I haven’t seen Edinburgh Castle or Dover Castle, which are on BRITISH HERITAGE’s list, as is Windsor Castle, which I have seen, but I probably will get to them, particularly Dover as it is part of the Cinque Ports. Dover is still a working port, unlike the others--Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, and Sandwich--and the castle was an active military post during World War II.
That last can also be said about Pendennis Castle, originally built by Henry VIII near Falmouth, Cornwall, and Carrickfergus Castle, originally built by John de Coucy in County Antrim in 1177, neither of which made the list. (What? Forgetting most of Ulster’s still part of the UK?) It’s on the shores of Lough Belfast. John de Coucy was left-handed, and a spiral staircase within the Norman keep reflects that oddity. Where Carrickfergus is huge with appropriately thick walls, Pendennis is tiny, but built for guns. So there’s the long and the short of it.
Speaking of Norman keeps, there is no excuse for not having the Tower of London on the list. That ferocious and formidable fortress may be the most expensive tourist trap in London, but it has seen almost a thousand years of history. It is also incredibly well preserved. It gained its horrible reputation under Henry VIII, and it remained a prison well into the 20th century. Just ask Rudolf Hess who spent three days incarcerated there.
Okay, there’s no arguing against the HMS VICTORY in Portsmouth, and I have to confess I’ve not been there yet. My excuse? When I was a Tudor historian, I wanted to see the landmarks of the Tudors, and VICTORY is part of the modern era. Now that I do the Georgian period, there’s not excuse. On the next trip, I’ll make it for sure.
(At the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, I did see the frockcoat Nelson wore when he got shot. The bullet hole is plainly visible on the shoulder.)
Several Georgian houses and gardens made the list, including Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Stowe Landscape Garden in Buckinghamshire, and Stourhead, Mere, in Wiltshire. The Roman Baths in Bath (Aquae Sulis) and the Bath Skyline Circular Walk complete the Georgian set. One Jacobean house, Chastleton House in Oxford made it.
There are Georgian houses to be seen in and around London, too, including the incomparable Kenwood. It was Caenwood when the 1st Earl of Mansfield--yes, that Lord Mansfield, the Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench--lived there. It was his villa to which he retreated for the remainder of his life after his Bloomsbury was burned to the ground during the Gordon Riots. The Library, with its Wedgwood plaques just below its Adam ceiling, is superlative. There is Apsley House that belonged to the Duke of Wellington. The rooms are decorated much the way the Duke would’ve had them. If you want to trek out to Twickenham on the weekends from March to October, then go to Marble Hill House, the home of Henrietta Howard.
Several mining sites with living history museums make BRITISH HERITAGE’S list--they are either in Wales or Durham. Nothing on tin mining in Cornwall, which was carried on from before the Romans to the end of the last century. Nothing in Cornwall made BRITISH HERITAGE’s list--not Penzance with St. Michael’s Mount or the Isles of Scilly. Good grief, there are enough gardens there to make any master gardener gnash her or his teeth. When the butterfly bushes can grow to tree size and that out of a sea wall, oh, please, this can’t be missed. The palm trees are mind-blowing, too.
However, if you’re going to do gardens, then let’s be sure that Kew Gardens are on the list. Besides being the biggest botanical garden in Britain, it’s still doing the work Sir Joseph Banks envisioned for it--both botanical and imperial. The Palm House is one gigantic Victorian greenhouse filled with every kind of palm tree from all over the world. You can ascend the spiral staircases (always my favorites--not!) to examine the tallest of the plants. There is also the Water Lily building and the multiple climes building. For a botanist, Kew Gardens is heaven--and that’s just what Sir Joseph wanted.
So, as you can see, I am not the greatest fan of “must-see” lists. These lists are all so highly idiosyncratic. What’s one person’s “must-see” is another’s “ho-hum”.