Newsletter #38 - March 4 to 11, 1960
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Newsletter #38
March 4th to March 11, 1960
England, Scotland and Ireland
Greetings,
Today [March 5] again finds us wandering over
more of England's interesting countryside. After leaving
Exeter this morning, we drove to Torquay, a large seaside
resort set on seven hills around the red cliffs and blue
waters of Tor Bay. This is a very noted and exclusive
holiday town and has earned the title of "Queen of the
English Riviera" because of its excellent beaches and
picturesque cliff walks. We also saw Compton Castle, a
15th century fortified mansion nearby.
Our next city of interest was England's most famous naval
port of Plymouth. It was from this harbor that the
Mayflower sailed to found a colony in the New World and
now we have seen from where they sailed and where they
landed. Plymouth is just another large port city with
modern docks and congested traffic. We had to ferry across
a body of water which put us into quite a traffic jam.
Next we drove to Falmouth, a place very familiar to
Meredith since the Army used their amphibious ducks in
this area when practicing. Falmouth has a deep water
harbor and is a noted yachting center as well as a
year-round resort with a fine sandy beach surrounded by
the charm of the richly wooded banks of the River Fal. The
position of Falmouth, on the peninsula jutting into the
sea where the Gulf Stream enters the Channel, makes it the
first English town to get the stream's benefit. Here we
saw only the ruins of Pendennis Castle which was built
during the reign of Henry VII. This must have been a
wonderful place to live because the view from these ruins
is really unusual since it is on the very edge of the
peninsula.
From Falmouth we drove to Helston, then Penzance and next
out to Land's End. This is the most westerly point in
England with only a population of 500. The coastal scenery
here is a mixture of great rocks of fantastic shapes and
beautiful bays. However, it was not clear enough for us to
see Scilly Islands which we had hoped to see. Tonight [March
5] we are staying in a town called Grantham. We are
in a very old inn furnished with elegant antiques. This
inn once lodged King John and his court back in 1213. This
morning
[March 6] we had a long drive through the Bodmin
Moors. They were rather uninteresting to me and divided
into many small hamlets. However, when we came to
Barnstaple at Bideford Bay, the drive
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was a bit more interesting to Meredith and myself. We
used roads which the ordinary tourist never uses since
they are off the scenic route. However, Meredith was quite
familiar with about 35 miles of this coast since this was
his staging area and home for several months while in
England before D-Day. We went to such towns as Croyde
where we saw lovely Croyde Bay, Woolacombe (also along the
coast) and then Ilfracombe. They were all very interesting
to us but probably not to many other people. From here we
began to drive inland and our next place of interest was
the city of Taunton which possesses a 12th century castle
and a famous church built in 1508. This church has a most
elaborate and unusual tower. Taunton is in an agricultural
area and has some interesting outdoor market places.
The next city was Bridgewater - another market town -
and then we had a long drive to Bristol. Bristol is a
large manufacturing center where we saw several
interesting churches and a suspension bridge over a gorge
which provided a spectacular view. Later we drove to Bath,
a beautiful, well planned city, with a wealth of Georgian
homes and many lovely parks. Bath is noted for its old spa
which has the only hot springs in Britain and these were
discovered by the Romans.
From Bath, we drove to a typical English town called
Chippenham where we have a room in a very old inn
furnished with unusual antiques. I'm a bit late writing
tonight as we watched TV which had several good programs
plus an excellent panel where Ed Morrow interviewed three
former ambassadors. (Perhaps you heard this same program.)
Another day [March 7] finds us on the road again and
viewing such cities as Marlborough and Newbury where we
saw a fine race course and some exceptionally nice
Elizabethan homes which date back to 15 and 1600. We then
drove on to the city of Reading which is a prosperous
manufacturing town on the Thames. Then we went to Ascot,
the famous racing town whose racecourse was founded in
1771. This racecourse is really beautiful and located in
an unusual section in that the town of Ascot only has a
population of 3,500. Racing season at Ascot is in June so
we had to be content to see only where all the pomp and
ceremony is performed. From Ascot we drove through the
picturesque and beautifully wooded Windsor Great Park.
This drive lasted about fifteen miles and then we arrived
at Windsor Castle. Of course, Windsor Castle is the chief
residence for royalty since Norman times. This unique and
beautiful castle was built by William the Conqueror, but
each monarch which followed him has left his mark of
distinction typical to the era in which he lived. During
the summer, the Queen's State Apartments are open to
visitors, but never during March, April and May since she
always stays in this castle during these months that is,
unless she's traveling. We did walk about the grounds and
gardens, which are beautiful, and we also saw the St.
George's Chapel which is on the castle grounds. These
wonderful castle precincts are open daily throughout the
year which really surprised us.
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The city of Windsor is quite charming and is on the
Thames River. It is linked by a bridge to the city of
Eton, home of the famous Eton College. Here we saw chaps
of all ages roaming about the campus and gardens of this
wonderful college dressed in pin stripped trousers,
cutaway coats, stiff white collars, etc. Even the boys on
the athletic fields, who were flying model airplanes, were
dressed as if they were ushering for a royal wedding.
From this college town we drove on for fifty more miles
until we arrived at Oxford, an ancient and picturesque
university on the rivers Cherwell and Thames. The many
colleges scattered throughout the town were founded at
various dates from 1299 on and the list of men educated at
Oxford includes many of Britain's most illustrious
scholars, soldiers and statesmen. The university church
has a beautiful 13th century tower and spire and the
entire city is most unusual.
We next drove to Banbury where Banbury Cross, the name of
the famous nursery rhyme favorite, derives its name and
where the cross is located. Banbury cakes are still being
sold at a shop over three centuries1 old. Only 25 miles
from Banbury, in a typically Tudor town, is unusually and
well preserved Stratford-on-Avon, a shrine to England's
greatest poet William Shakespeare. While we were here we
saw the old grammar school where Shakespeare was educated
and the home in which he was born. Both of these were very
interesting. This entire town is unique, even down to the
smallest swan floating upon the Avon which is midst the
lovely meadows of Stratford-on-Avon.
We next visited Shottery, a town one-and-a-half miles
west of Stratford where we saw 'the charming thatched
roofed Anne Hathaway cottage. It looks exactly as I've
often seen it in pictures except for the garden which was
lacking flowers and color today. I do believe I could
elaborate and expound on Stratford-on-Avon and this
particular area of England for several more pages, but
I'll just say we were thrilled and delighted and leave it
go with those words. BUT, I do want to remind you to put
it on your list of "musts" if you ever get to England.
Our next traditional place was Warwick where we saw some
attractive timbered Elizabethan houses and the East Gate
which is the remaining relic of the town walls. The
greatest attraction of Warwick is the Warwick Castle, a
wonderful medieval baronial castle with foundations dating
from Norman times and walls and towers of the 14th
century.
Tonight [March 7] we are staying at Kenilworth,
an interesting town dating from 819. This city is famed
for its castle and its Norman tower of 1180. The castle
figured prominently in Scotts' novel "Kenilworth". Our
home tonight is a quaint hotel dating to the Elizabethan
era and is opposite the ruins of the castle I've just
mentioned. Precious antiques and antique furnishings are
artistically arranged in this hotel called the "Queen and
Castle". We are quite comfortable here except for the
drafty rooms. The heat comes only from the fireplaces and
every room seems chilly.
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Another day [March 8] finds us in Coventry which
is an important industrial city and suffered considerable
damage during the last war. Its literary fame stems from
the legend of Lady Godiva whose statue now stands in the
center of the town. (In case you've forgotten, she rode a
horse through the streets of Coventry unclothed, but
fortunately she possessed extremely long hair ...)
After Coventry, we drove to Rugby, a noted hunting area,
and the place where Rugby football originated in 1823.
This is also the city where the famous Public School was
founded in 1567. Rugby has several old churches of repute
among its famous buildings. Our next city was Northampton
which is an industrial center famous for manufacturing
boots and shoes and has a number of interesting old
churches and houses.
We next drove to Cambridge which is noted for its
architecture, particularly the University buildings which
are on the banks of the River Cam. The lush meadows on one
side form a pleasing contrast to the buildings on the
other. We saw Fitzwilliam Museum and some of the following
colleges of the University: Christ's, King's, Pembroke,
Corpus Christi, Trinity, St. John's, Jesus and Magdalene.
From Cambridge we drove to Ely where, as you approach the
town, you see the harmonious and graceful lines of its
large and magnificent Norman Cathedral. This small town
has several other ancient monuments and relics. Oliver
Cromwell lived in Ely for ten years. Our next town,
Peterborough, is another fine old cathedral city and is
almost entirely of ecclesiastical origin having grown up
around a 7th century monastery. The cathedral here is of
Gothic architecture on the front and has a Norman nave.
Nottingham, with its castle built on the peaks of a rock
which dominates part of the city, is another town which
goes back to the times of the Normans and Saxons when the
natives lived in the caves of Castle Rock. We could very
plainly see these old caves today and also a surviving
fragment of Sherwood Forest as it has been since the 13th
century. This area is called the Forest Recreation Ground.
We next drove through Derby which is another
manufacturing center and includes in its many industries
today the Rolls Royce factory and the Royal Crown Derby
Porcelain Company.
The next large manufacturing town was Sheffield which was
also heavily damaged during the war, but today we saw many
large and new plants that seemed to be quite busy. We also
drove through Doncaster, another busy industrial town,
with large locomotive works and many coal mines in the
neighborhood. Here we saw Mansion House, a mid-l8th
century Georgian building and Conisborough Castle which
was the home of Athelstane in "Ivanhoe".
Today we also visited York, England. This is a very old,
medieval city which is surrounded by its ancient
fortifications. York ranks with Canterbury in
ecclesiastical importance and the York Minster
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is the largest medieval cathedral in England. It was
built over a period of 250 years and has a gorgeous
interior with notable stained glass windows which are
lovely, but to us do not compare with the much-used cobalt
blue of Canterbury's windows. The curfew bell, on the
Tower of St. Michael's Church, near York Minster
Cathedral, has tolled nightly, with few exceptions, since
1066. York is very musical, as is our own city of York,
and has its York Symphony and a British Music Society. It
also has a large art gallery, a lovely park called Bootham
and a St. Maryfs Abbey. The town has two castle museums.
One castle was formerly used as a female prison and this
area has a large pillared building known as Assize Courts
which was built in 1777 and a tall mound containing
Clifford's Tower which dates back to 1258. We enjoyed this
old city of York and feel we are named well as it is a
city of an impressive number of beautiful old churches
which I feel is also true of our wonderful city of York.
We had snow flurries the entire time we were in this
delightful city. From York we drove 32 miles to
Northallerton, Yorkshire, where we are spending the night
at the delightful Golden Lion Hotel.
This morning [March 9] we visited a lovely aristocratic
city known as Darlington. Here there were many exquisite
old homes. From here we drove through the towns of Bernard
Castle, Appleby, Penrith and on to a larger town called
Carlisle. This town is only eight miles south of Scotland.
Here we began to see some of the Marathon Walkers who left
John 0'Groats, at the extreme northern end of Scotland,
and are in a walking contest which will end at Land's End,
the extreme southern coast. We saw at least a dozen
contestants, three of whom were women.
We are now in Scotland and the first town of any size
which we saw today was Dumfries, an industrial town. In
this city Robert Burns lived until his death in 1795. His
grave, the house where he died and the church he attended
may all be visited here by those who are interested. We
drove on to the coast to the small town of Stranraer where
we made reservations to cross the Irish Sea in order to
visit Ireland. The ship, Princess Margaret, will be our
hotel tonight as the car must be aboard by 4 A.M.
Therefore, we plan to stay on this lovely ship tonight
which sails at 7 A.M., at which time I hope we'll still be
asleep. I'm writing this at a hotel in Stranraer where we
enjoyed a very nice dinner this evening along with the
comfort of their fireplace in their lobby. We cannot go
aboard the ship until 10 P.M. and that is the reason we
are biding our time in the hotel.
Today [March 10] finds us in Ireland after a very
rough crossing on the Irish Sea. During breakfast aboard
the ship we had trouble keeping our butter knife on the
butter plate and all kinds of dishes were moving about and
it was necessary to have the sides up on all the tables.
We had a very comfortable berth on the ship, but I spent a
rather restless night. Our ship docked at Larne, Ireland
which is a town about 20 miles north of Belfast in
Northern Ireland. Our "Little Princess" was soon on the
road and we began our tour of Ireland.
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We first went to Belfast, the capital and largest city of
Northern Ireland. Here we saw the lofty dome of the City
Hall, the usual museums, churches, etc. Then we started
down the coast to Dundalk which is at the entrance of
Ulster Gap. From here we drove inland to Armagh which has
been the ecclesiastical center of Ireland for more than
fifteen centuries. St. Patrick founded his church here in
432 A.D. In Armagh, we saw the double-spired St. Patrick's
Cathedral which consists of two churches - one Protestant
and one Roman Catholic. This city is the seat of both the
Protestant and Catholic Archbishops and is a city of many
hills.
We arrived in Dublin early in the afternoon and, as
usual, it was raining. We did some sightseeing and found a
nice hotel. Dublin is the capital and largest city in
Ireland and the real social center for the Irish people.
The name Dublin means "dark pool" in Gaelic (Irish
language) and it received this name because of the dark,
peat-colored waters of the River Liffey which passes
through the heart of the city. Here the buildings and
homes are almost black with dirt and are in need of a real
face-lifting. We saw such places as Dublin Castle - a
relic of medieval times; St. Patrick's Cathedral where
Jonathan Swift was once dean; Lord Nelson's Pillar'
Guinness' Brewery - the largest in the world; the Royal
Irish Academy; Abbey Theatre - world famous for its fine
acting; Christ Church Cathedral which dates from 1O38;
Trinity College and several other large impressive
buildings.
This morning [March 11] , after another look about
Dublin, we drove inland about thirty miles to a small town
called Kildare. This town owes its origin to St. Brigid
who founded a religious establishment here in about 470
A.D. In this small town we saw the ruins of an old castle,
two lovely ancient cathedrals and a well preserved round
tower. This tower was once used for refuge and storage
during days of invasion. About three miles from Kildare,
at a private estate which breeds race horses, we went to
see a Japanese Garden which was absolutely "out-ofthis-
world". The garden was started fifty years ago by Japanese
artists, craftsmen and gardeners. A great lover of gardens
and beauty was responsible for the inception and
development of these gardens and it took four years to
build the various parts of the gardens. The plants, trees,
bridges, stones, lanterns, teakwood fencing, materials for
the teakwood house and many other items were all
transported from Japan. I can't begin to describe the
beauty of this garden, but we did not see one to compare
with it in Japan. The only other Japanese Garden which
impressed me so much was the one displayed at the World
Fair by Japen which was held In San Francisco about twenty
years ago. The guide was as Irish as could be, but he gave
a lovely story about the garden which described a Japanese
man's life from the cradle to the grave and he did it most
impressively. Each rock, stream of water, lantern and
passageway was an era of a person's life and he gave the
details of pitfalls and happinesses which occur during a
lifetime.
Our next town was Cashel which lies in the fertile plain
of Tipperary and is famous for its historical rock. It was
here that St. Patrick preached when he used the trefoil
shamrock as an illustration of the doctrine of the
Trinity. On this famous rock
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which is a hill 300 feet high, there is an ancient
cathedral. King Cormac's Chapel and a round tower similar
to the one we saw in Kildare. The entire hill is known as
"The Rock of Cashel" and is a very beautiful place.
From Cashel we drove to Tipperary which is another small
town with the usual churches and monuments. Our only
reason for wanting to see the town was because of the song
about Tipperary which originated during World War I.
Our next stop was in Cork, a southern Ireland port city
only several miles from Cobh. Cobh is the port of call
city for transatlantic liners. We took a drive along the
Marina where we saw a lovely small castle along the
waters' edge and several interesting cargo shops. Cork is
Ireland's third largest city on the River Lee and has some
interesting hills and scenery in the city suburbs. In
order to visit Ireland's number one attraction - "the
Blarney Stone" - in Blarney Castle, we had to drive
several miles from Cork to the very small village of
Blarney. We trudged through a nice downpour of rain for a
good half mile from the parking area to Blarney Castle and
then climbed hundreds of narrow winding steps to the upper
tower of the castle. While the guide held our feet, we
each took our turn leaning over backwards down a stone
shaft to kiss the "Blarney Stone". This was to receive the
"gift of gab" which the stone is known for the world over
and which is to impart the "gift of gab" to those who are
brave enough to kiss it. We were certainly plenty wet when
we got back to the car -- we even had to kiss the Blarney
Stone" in the rain.
Tonight [March 11] , the last night of another newsletter
week, finds us in a small, ancient village with
picturesque half-timbered houses with thatched roofs and
some ecclesiastical ruins. There is also a beautiful manor
house called "Adare Manor" which belongs to the Dunraven
family. The ruins of a fine old castle are also seen
nearby on the River Shannon.
We have discovered Ireland is a very expensive country in
which to travel and we have been quite disappointed in its
countryside. Perhaps it is because of the bad weather, but
regardless, we are going to try to drive at least 300
miles tomorrow so that we can make the ship back to
Scotland tomorrow night. Picture-taking is out because of
the mist, rain and cloudy skies.
So, for another week, we'll close and "hit the sack" so
that we can get an early start tomorrow morning.
We're still feeling fine in spite of all this nasty
weather and certainly hoping we soon have some sunshine as
this dampness is terrific when you are in hotels which
have only fireplaces or small heaters for warming large
areas.
Fondest regards to all,
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