England -- Description and travel; England -- Social life and customs
Poor Boadicea: if she suffered all that is said, "an indignant mien" would
seem to be a weak description of her state of mind; but a rhyme was
necessary. This more or less historical Amazon of early Britain has now a
statue to her memory on Westminster Bridge. (And, by the way, London has
yet to learn--and might learn from Paris--how to utilise the artistic
possibilities of bridges.)
[Illustration: WATERGATE STREET, CHESTER]
But to return to St. Albans. The Watling Street of the Romans from London
to Chester ran through this town. After the departure of the Roman legions,
St. Albans suffered a long siege at the hands of the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
Sacked and left in ruins it became a stronghold for outlaws. Then the
Church came with holy balm, and the foundation of a monastery gave St.
Albans peace.
Chester, where the Watling Street of the Romans ended, is to-day one of the
most picturesque of English cities. Its old timbered houses and arcaded
streets give it a mediæval air, which is jealously preserved in all
restoration work. Bath is another city of Roman antiquity. Portions of the
Roman baths still exist there, and the existence of a great modern spa
shows that the doctors of to-day endorse the opinion of their colleagues of
the days of Cæsar. Apart from its medicinal waters, Bath is a very
beautiful town, the architectural treatment of its hill-sides being most
effective. In an earlier century it was a great resort of fashion, and
there reigned Beau Nash, the Exquisite. To-day Bath is less popular, but
not less deserving of favour, and an effort is being made to restore its
old glories. Winchester, another Roman town, an old capital of the
kingdom, and the reputed capital of King Arthur, where the "curfew bell"
still rings, should be among the first three of the cities of England
visited. From there it would be well to go west to ramble through Plymouth,
a naval port full of memories of Francis Drake and other gallants of the
glorious Elizabethan days. Bristol then claims a day; also Rochester, which
has the second oldest cathedral in England, and which has a new source of
interest in that it is emphatically, after London, the Dickens city.
Canterbury should have more than a day, for it is a link between Briton
England and Roman England, and then between Briton England and Saxon
England. (Between Dover and Canterbury was the first line of resistance to
the Roman invaders, and again to the Saxon invaders.) There Bertha, the
first Christian Queen of Kent, worshipped in the little Church of St.
Michael. There St. Augustine christened Ethelbert of Kent, founded a
monastery, ordained a bishop (1300 years ago), and set the foundations of
the first Christian cathedral in England. There, too, À Becket shed his
blood; and there is the shrine of the Black Prince.
Salisbury, with its cathedral, must not be missed. It was a great fortified
town once, and Pepys records in his Diary:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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