"Literary Links" - London - Laurence Olivier

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Outside the National Theatre, on the south of the River Thames, is a statue of  Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) erected in 2007 to celebrate the centenary of this great actor’s birth.  

It was unveiled by his contemporary Richard Attenborough in honour of his brilliant career and his role as the Founding Director of the National Theatre – a position he held from 1963-1973.   The National Theatre’s largest auditorium – the Olivier - is named in his honour.  

This is an excerpt from the tour London River Walk - South Bank which explores the southern bank of the River Thames.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - London - Waterloo Bridge

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Charles Dickens

For some reason a number of suicidal Victorians chose Waterloo Bridge as their spring board into the eternities.   Charles Dickens made mention of these poor unfortunate souls as he approaches Waterloo with a night police patrol rowing on the Thames:

“Every colour but black seemed to have departed from the world.  The air was black, the water was black, the barges and hulks were black, the piles were black, the buildings were black, the shadows were only a deeper shade of black upon a black ground.   Here and there, a coal fire in an iron cresset blazed upon a wharf; but, one knew that it too had been black a little while ago, and would be black again soon.  Uncomfortable rushes of water suggestive of gurgling and drowning, ghostly rattling of iron chains, dismal clankings of discordant engines, formed the music that accompanied the dip of our oars and their rattlings in the rullocks.  Even the noises had a black sound to me …” 

   “There was need of encouragement on the threshold of the bridge, for the bridge was dreary… the river had an awful look, the buildings on the banks were muffled in black shrouds, and the reflected lights seemed to originate deep in the water, as if the spectres of suicides were holding them to show where they went down. “

He used these dark feelings in David Copperfield when Martha Endell  says, 

“I can’t keep away from it.  I can’t forget it.  It haunts me day and night.  It’s the only thing in all the world that I am fit for, or that’s fit for me.  Oh, the dreadful river!”

And in Oliver Twist he has Nancy declare,

“Look before you, lady. Look at that dark water. How many times do you read of such as I who spring into the tide, and leave no living thing, to care for, or bewail them. It may be years hence, or it may be only months, but I shall come to that at last.”

Thomas Hood

Thomas Hood (1799-1845) wrote a lengthy poem about a real young woman called Mary Furley who jumped in with her young child (1844).  The child died but Mary lived through the ordeal.  Hood relabelled Waterloo as “The Bridge of Sighs.”   The most famous section of the poem goes:

The bleak wind of March
Made her tremble and shiver;
But not the dark arch,
Or the black flowing river:
Mad from life's history,
Glad to death's mystery,
Swift to be hurl'd—
Anywhere, anywhere
Out of the world!
 In she plunged boldly—
No matter how coldly
The rough river ran—
Over the brink of it,
Picture it—think of it,
Dissolute Man!
Lave in it, drink of it,
Then, if you can! Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!

Anyone who did reclaim a body from the River would do well to take it to the southern side.  In Victorian times the Surrey officials would pay a crown for the corpse, whereas on the northern bank the stingy Middlesex officials only paid half a crown.  

This is an excerpt from the tour London River Walk - South Bank which explores the southern bank of the River Thames.  The full tour is found on   www.obelisktours.co.uk

"On the Road" - London Eye

"On the road..." is a series of posts about our Discovery of Britain's highways and byways.  Whether it be some family fun, a surprising connection or just a beautiful spot we want to share our love for this country with you.  

Today we visit the London Eye

Have you ever wondered what the views are like from the London Eye?  Well, today we give you a chance to 'look' out across London as we share the history of this attraction.

Preparing for take off

The London Eye, opened in 1999, continues to provide visitors with impressive 360⁰ views across the capital from the comfort of heated and ventilated capsules.  Standing at 135 metres (443 ft) high and weighing 2,100 tonnes the London Eye carries 800 visitors around on each of its half hour rotations.  The slow, continual rotation means the wheel never has to stop to allow guests to step on and off.   

Guests can see for 24 miles (40 km) and enjoy great aerial views of London’s iconic buildings. 

This simple idea of the ‘Eye’ was originally conceived to be a temporary attraction.  After five years it was supposed to be dismantled and moved to a new city.  Little did planners know then how popular it would become, and it is now a permanent structure.  With over 3 million visitors a year it continues to be one of the most visited paid attractions in the city and has become as much a part of London’s skyline as its neighbouring Big Ben.  

Its iconic status has made it a much sought after venue.  You can even get married here!  Around 60 couples a year tie the knot on the London Eye.   Film crews have used it in movies such as The Fantastic Four, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Thunderbirds and Paddington.  Likewise it has made appearances on TV programmes such as Dr. Who, Sherlock and even the Simpsons. 

And one useless bit of trivia for you:  the capsules are numbered from 1 to 33….yet if you count you will discover only 32.  The reason being that there is no capsule number 13 – it was left out for good luck.  

This is an excerpt from the tour London River Walk - South Bank  which explores around the southern side of the Thames.  The full tour is found on   www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Now Picture That" - London - Westminster Abbey

"Now Picture That" is a series of posts which share old engravings and photos of Britain to help you imagine how things looked in times gone by.  

Image taken from an antique print of the west front of Westminster Abbey.   The street in front was known as   Tothill Street which was home to titled gentlemen such as the Bishop of Chester (1488),  Lord Dudley (1522), Lord Dacre, Sir George Carew (1612), Southern (the dramatic poet) and Edmund Burke.   The homes had extensive gardens, but both homes and gardens have now been swept away.  The area around this street has a wide and varied history including a military garden, a racecourse, a bear garden, bull baiting, and duels.

Drawn by Schnebbelie (fl.1803-1849).  Engraved by Ambrose William Warren (fl.1805-1856). Originally featured in "London; being an accurate history and description of the British metropolis" (London 1805-1809) by David Hughson (Pugh). 

The original image was a Copper line engraving on paper. 

Published by J. Stratford, 112 Holborn hill, June 8th 1805

The area around Westminster is explored in our self guided tour available to download to your phone or tablet today from www.obelisktours.com:

Parliament Square is surrounded by some of the great British institutions:  Parliament, The Church of England, The Supreme Court and HM Treasury.  This tour goes back to the roots of this area and uncovers layers of history from the time when Edward the Confessor first built his Palace here and upgraded a little monastery of Benedictine monks.    This is a place of high drama: of assassination and executions, of Royal scandal and glory, of coronations and state funerals, of monarchy against parliament – all set against a backdrop of inspiring architecture, of Sanctuary and commemoration.  

We cross the paths of historical favourites such as Guy Fawkes, Pirates, Richard the Lion heart, Unknown Warriors, and Winston Churchill.  

"Literary Links" - London's Pavement Poets

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

If you walk along the South Bank of the River Thames, remember to keep checking the pavement for some poetical paving slabs.  They are in a bad state of repair and their days may be numbered, so enjoy this poetical interlude while you can! 

 One of them is by Henry Luttell (1765-1851), an eloquent and engaging English politician and wit, who described the famous London fogs:

Fast at the dawn of lingering day

It rises of an ashy grey;

Then deepening with a sordid stain

Of yellow like a lion’s mane

From a London Fog 1822  Letters to Julia

The poet William Collins (1721-1759) had written a poem called “ Ode on the death of  Mr. Thomson” (1700-1748) who was also a poet.  This poem, in turn, inspired William Wordsworth (1770-1850)  to write: 

Glide gently.  Thus for ever glide

O Thames!  That other bards may seeAs lovely visions by thy sideAs now fair river! come to me.O, glide fair stream!  For ever so,Thy quiet soul on all bestowing,Till all our minds for ever flow
As thy deep waters now are flowing.Remembrance of CollinsComposed upon the Thames near Richmond in 1789

The designer and poet William Morris (1834-1896) wrote:

Forget six counties overhung with smokeForget the snorting steam and piston stroke,Forget the spreading of the hideous town;Think rather of the pack-horse on the down,And dream of London, small, and white, and clean,The clear Thames bordered by its gardens green.            From Earthly Paradise

The other paving slabs to hunt for are one by playwright and poet Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), another by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) with his description of a sweaty river Thames and, the most modern, a comic piece by Spike Milligan. 

This is an excerpt from the tour  London River Walk - SouthBank  which explores the path along the south of the River Thames.   The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"On the Road..." - A tree and some fish in Cambridge

"On the road..." is a series of posts about our Discovery of Britain's highways and byways.  Whether it be some family fun, a surprising connection or just a beautiful spot we want to share our love for this country with you.  

Today we visit Cambridge

Outside of Trinity College at Cambridge University is this rather special tree.  

Isaac Newton was a fellow at Trinity College and his lodgings were in the oriel window you can see immediately behind the tree to the left.  A statue to him can be found at the back of Trinity’s chapel – the building to the right of the tree (not visible in this photo). 

Isaac Newton was born in 1642 at Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham, Lincolnshire .   When he was 24 years old he was in the Manor’s gardens and pondered why apples fell to the ground and his first musings on gravity began to form.   The apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor soon became and continues to be a tourist attraction.  The ‘gravity tree’ was blown over in a storm in 1816, but it re-rooted and continues to flower each year.  Cuttings from the ancient apple tree have been sent worldwide and various places have a tree which claims descent from the one tree – including this one outside of Trinity College.   From what I can deduce this Cambridge tree would be the grandchild of the original – although I suspect Find My Past and Ancestry.com will have a bias against non human research so I'm not sure how to check my assumption (have I discovered the next big family history breakthrough – a family tree for trees).     

You will also find some of the tree’s children and grandchildren planted at The Physics Department at the University of York, the King’s School in Grantham, the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and even afar afield as the University of Nebraska and the Balseiro Institute in Argentina.   

In 2010 a piece of the original tree was taken as a guest on the space shuttle, and in 2015 the astronaut Tim Peake took some of its seeds with him to the International Space Station.  When he returns those seeds will be planted at Woolsthorpe – so the gravity tree having experienced zero gravity will become a gravity tree once again!  Or will it?  Will those apples fall towards space?  Will gravity start to unravel?   This is sounding like the plot of a bad science fiction movie.

You can even buy (for £29.99) a direct descendant of the tree to plant in your own garden.  You can soon be enjoying some of the most famous apple pies in the world!  Buy your own tree here   

  One tree to rule them all, One Tree to find them,
One Tree to bring them all and in the pie bind them.

The simple event of an apple falling from a tree triggered a chain of thought about motion and resulted in the publication of Newton's thoughts in Principia - one of the most important science books ever written. 

So...what does all this have to do with fish?

Edmond Halley (1656-1742) - the same Halley for whom Halley's Comet is named - was responsible for getting Isaac Newton to publish his findings on gravity and the laws of motion.  The Royal Society, who would normally support such a work, had spent their budget on publishing “The History of Fish” which was selling really badly so they were unable to provide funds for Newton.  Halley stepped in and paid for Newton’s book with the assurance by the Society he would be paid back.  They never could afford to pay him in money, but he did become the lucky owner of the unsold copies of The History of Fish as recompense.

This tree and story will be included in an upcoming self guided tour we are currently researching which will explore the streets of Cambridge.  We have already created self guided tours for London, Oxford, Liverpool, Preston, Gloucester and Ledbury and have plenty more brewing.  Take a peek at www.obelisktours.com

"Now Picture That" - Preston - Old Engraving

"Now Picture That" is a series of posts which share old engravings and photos of Britain to help you imagine how things looked in times gone by.  

This image looks from Penwortham Hill (site of an ancient, disappeared castle & abbey) across the River Ribble to the town of Preston.   The chimneys of the cotton works are a noticeable part of the town's skyline, but note also the windmills.   Early cotton production, and notably  Richard Arkwright's water frame, needed a source of power to keep it going.  In the absence of any fast moving streams in the area hand, horse or windmill were used.  Today only one base of these windmills survives at Craggs Row Mill.

From a Steel Engraving by J. Harwood & R. Winkles.

Go to www.obelisktours.com  to discover more of Preston on our FREE tour of the ancient market place:

This FREE tour explores centuries of change around Preston’s Flag Market.  We find the remnants of Bull baiting, the stories behind the ancient Obelisk, the religious meaning behind the Lamb and the Flag, and the transformation of the Shambles.   Our tour discovers the majesty of the Harris Museum and the Age of Pericles, the ‘skyscraper’ of Preston, and Edwardian grandeur.  

Or one of our faith tours of Preston and the beginnings of British Mormonism:

 We follow in the footsteps of the first LDS missionaries to Britain and discover Joseph Smith's dentist, the cursed stone, the 1842 riot, the powerful Reverend Wilson, Heber C. Kimball's amazing prophecy, LDS shorthand, and the Deseret Alphabet. We visit all of the well-known sites including their lodgings (where a host of evil spirits attacked them), the River Ribble (where the first British baptisms took place, the Vauxhall Chapel Site (where they first preached) and the cockpit site (where the first British Conference was held in 1837).  We also unveil the poverty, the opposition and the beginnings of the Nauvoo Sunstone.  

"Literary Links" - Mr Toad in Oxford

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Last Thursday we highlighted that two of Oxford's famous Inkling group were buried in the Holywell cemetery of St Cross Church - namely Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson.   They are not the only famous literary figures to have been buried here.  

The graveyard is quite an atmospheric spot  The Church may date to around AD 890, but the first mention seems to be 1100.  The buildings date from the 12^th  century onwards.  Just near the church was a Holy Well, from whence the church and nearby Holywell Street gain their name.  Buried in this ancient spot, surrounded by long grass and wild flowers is Kenneth Grahame

The tomb of Kenneth Grahame 1859-1932

  As a young boy Grahame attended school in Oxford and dearly wanted to go to the University, but the cost was considered too great and he ended up with a career at the Bank of England (1876).  He loved writing and is the author of the classic story Wind in the Willows.  The public appeal of  Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad was not realised until after his death. 

Grahame’s only child, Alistair, was an undergraduate at Christ Church College in Oxford - thus fulfilling his father's own childhood dream.  Alistair was an unruly child and was immortalised in Wind in the Willows as Mr Toad.   Mr Toad sang the following:

The clever men at Oxford
Know all that there is to be knowed.
But they none of them know one half as much
As intelligent Mr Toad

 Quite tragically Alistair committed suicide while still a student.  

This is an excerpt from the tour Oxford’s Noble and Great Ones - Part 2  which explores the streets of Oxford.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

On the Road...Oxford's Hidden Treasures

"On the road..." is a series of posts about our Discovery of Britain's highways and byways.  Whether it be some family fun, a surprising connection or just a beautiful spot we want to share our love for this country with you.  

Today we visit a hidden treasure in Oxford.

Each Oxford college has its own library with many beautiful and significant antiquarian books.  On one of our group visits to Oxford we were privileged to get a behind the scenes tour of the impressive collection of the Harris Manchester College with books dating back to the seventeenth century. 

The College began life in 1786 as the Manchester Academy based in Manchester.  At that time Oxford was for the education of Anglicans only, so the Academy provided further education for non-conformists.   It moved to York in 1803, back to Manchester in 1840, down to London in 1853, and finally settled down in Oxford in 1889.  In 1996 it was renamed Harris Manchester in honour of Philip Harris (1942-  ) who’s carpet wealth has richly benefited the college.

These were some of the highlights from their library collection:  

• The Dutchman, Erasmus (1466-1536) had been invited to teach Greek at Cambridge University (the Other Place!), and while in England he translated the Bible from the original Greek - a work now considered one of the most important early documents of the English Reformation.

A column of original Greek with a revised Latin translation

His Greek translation (1513) highlighted that the commonly used Latin version of the Bible had many inaccurate translations which, in turn, had led to some false theology and practises.   His new Bible showed the original Greek and a revised Latin translation.

Erasmus also promoted the converting of scripture into local languages.  He said,

"I totally disagree with those who are unwilling that the Holy Scriptures should be translated into everyday languages and read by unlearned people."

• That message resounded deeply with the likes of Martin Luther in Germany who, in 1522, released this German translation of the New Testament.  

• The 'Great Bible' was published in 1539 by Miles Coverdale.  Two years earlier the Matthew Bible had been released - in English - but it contained some marginal notes which many Church leaders found unacceptable.   Coverdale's version eliminated those remarks.  

• This 1578 edition of the Bishop's Bible is sometimes called a Treacle Bible because Jeremiah 8:22 reads "Is there not treacle at Gilead?"  In subsequent editions treacle became "balm", but historically 'treacle' referred to an antidote to poison.

• This 1613 book "An Introduction to a Devout Life" is made especially valuable as Charles Wesley's signature is in the front (dated June 5, 1734), 

• They also have Charles Wesley's glasses.

• And finally Sir Isaac Newton's famous work Principia (1687) - one of the most important science books of all time.  This monumental work which first explained the laws of gravity was brought to us due to a book on fish.  To find out what that is all about you'll have to join us next Monday when "On the road..." takes us to Cambridge.  

• 

These books and the Harris Manchester Library are not open to the General Public, but more details about the people, places and events associated with these sites can be found on the tour Oxford’s Noble and Great Ones - Part 2 available on   www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Now Picture That" - London - Tower of London

"Now Picture That" is a series of posts which share old engravings and photos of Britain to help you imagine how things looked in times gone by.  

A very atmospheric image of the Tower of London by moonlight taken from an antique steel engraving print.  

Drawn by William Henry Bartlett.  Engraved by James Tibbetts Willmore A.R.A. (1800-1863).  The image was orginally used in the book "Ports, Harbours, Watering Places and Coast Scenery of Great Britain" (London : 1836-1842). 

London: Published by George Virtue, 26 Ivy Lane, 1842

The area around the Tower is explored in our self guided tour found via www.obelisktours.com

"This circular Walk explores the area around Tower Hill and around the outside of the Tower of London.    We discover a 1,825 year old wall, a nearly 950 year old palace, and a 146 year old tunnel.   This area just oozes with history and features in just about every British conflict you can imagine including The War of the Roses, The Reformation, The English Civil War, and The Jacobites.
We also explore what most visitors just walk pass without realising what is right under their noses.   We learn about Tubby Clayton, TocH, Execution sites, war memorials, escapes, sieges and ceremonies."

"Literary Links" - The Inklings in Oxford

 "Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Many Oxford visitors will make a pilgrimage to the Eagle and Child pub, but there are a couple of other sites they should really include as well.  

The Eagle and Child is a seventeenth century pub most famously known as the meeting place of the Inklings – a small literary group which included C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien.  Here they would gather every Tuesday morning for 23 years to share a chapter, a poem, a line, a plot with their friends.  Here they would discuss, drink, debate and discover.  A beer in one hand and a smoke in the other made this as comfortable as any hobbit hole.   Here the deeds of Sam and Frodo or Prince Caspian and Aslam gradually evolved and came to life.  C.S. Lewis once said to Tolkien “If they won’t write the kinds of books we want to read, we shall have to write them ourselves.”  

There are couple of other sites worthy of adding to any inklings fan's itinerary.

To the side of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, down St. Mary’s Passage is a little bit of Narnia.  There is a door facing St Mary’s church which has a local legend attached to it - the following story may be no more than an urban legend, but even if it is not true it should be!

The story goes that C.S. Lewis came out of the western doors of the church, bumped his head and as he steadied himself came face to face with a carved door in the middle of which is a Green Man, symbolic of rebirth, and looking very lion like.

The 'Narnia' door on the left, and St Mary's Church on the right.
The Radcliffe Camera is in the background.

 Above it he saw two carved fawns in the canopy and, as he turned towards Radcliffe Camera, saw a lamppost.  So, it is claimed, was he introduced to Aslan the Lion, Mr Tumnus the Faun and the lamppost which all featured in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Two fawns guarding the Aslan door, and the lampost in the distance.

Our next stop is Holywell cemetery surrounding St Cross Church to visit the tombs of Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson. 

The tomb of Charles Williams (1886 - 1945)

William's name does not usually register with most visitors.  However, he was another member of the inklings group that met to share their works and thoughts.  The group could average as many as ten regulars plus a handful of occasional visitors, but Williams influence was such that he is sometimes referred to as "The Third Inkling".  He had been hired by the Oxford University Press as a proofreading assistant and eventually became an editor. He was mainly a novelist and his writings influenced Dorothy Sayers, T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden.  His tombstone remembers him as 'Poet'.  One of his greatest fans and friends was C.S. Lewis.  Some reviewers believe that Aslan the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia, was based on the lion who appeared in Williams’ book The Place of the Lion.

Also buried in this cemetery is a lesser known inkling called Hugo Dyson.  He was a much loved lecturer at the University and he thoroughly enjoyed the weekly meetings at the Eagle and Child.  He did acquire a distaste for Tolkien's orcs and elves, and his obvious dislike actually stopped Tolkien from sharing much of his Lord of the Rings with the group.  Oh to be able to switch places with Dyson and to hear and encourage the tales of Middle Earth from the mouth of their creator.  Dyson along with Tolkien, was a key influence in converting C.S. Lewis to Christianity.

The tomb of Hugo Dyson 1896-1975

All these inkling sites are included in our self guided tours of Oxford on www.obelisktours.com

• The Narnia door is included in Oxford's Noble and Great Ones Tour Two
• Holywell Cemetery is in Oxford's Noble and Great Ones Tour Two.
• The Eagle and Child is included in Oxford's Noble and Great Ones Tour Three.

"On the Road..." - Southport's Delights

"On the road..." is a series of posts about our Discovery of Britain's highways and byways.  Whether it be some family fun, a surprising connection or just a beautiful spot we want to share our love for this country with you.  

Today we visit Southport. 

This past weekend (3-5 June 2016) was Southport's Food and Drink Festival.  I've never been before, but I was pleasantly surprised at the wide range of goodies available. Pies, crepes, sausages, cheeses, street food, sweets, gourmet burgers, hog roast, ice creams, etc. etc.... I'm getting hungry just remembering.    The sweet aromas were tempting and I'd highly recommend a visit if you are around that area next year.  Come with an empty stomach and money in your wallet - there is just soooooo much to choose from.

This was a boys day out, and the highlights for my gang were:

1. Fudge.  Fudge, fudge and more fudge.

2. The creepy creatures from Windmill Farm 
These were not available to eat!  Just part of a range of free activities for younger visitors.

Isaac was the only one brave enough to put the snake around his neck

 We have not visited Windmill Farm for a few years now.  It is a delightful petting farm which is perfect for younger children, but did not have as much enduring appeal now for our four high school children (our younger two primary school children sometimes miss out on younger activities as we try to balance family activities for the greater good).   However, I discovered this weekend that since our last visit they have introduced a falconry display and a whole range of critters - which suddenly shoots it right back up into the interests of my growing brood.

Luke, Daniel, Isaac and Jacob with their new friend.
No - we can't take him home.

If you have never been to Southport before I think you will be surprised at how much there is to do all right next door to each other.  Splash World, Pleasure Land, Go-Karts, Cinema, Laser Tag, Pier Train, Speed boats, rowing/pedal/motor boats, arcades, miniature train/village, bowls, playgrounds, mini golf, pitch and putt.  They all have a price tag on them (except for the children's playground), but there is lots to keep you occupied.

Sadly no one fell in.  

And, if you time it right, you can enjoy a food festival as well.  Or a fireworks competition.  Or an air show.  Or a car show.  Or a Flower Show.  Or a Fashion show.  Or ... take a peek to see  What's on in Southport?

And guess what... we are currently researching a new self guided walking tour of Southport on our Obelisk Tours app http://www.obelisktours.com/    I think you'll enjoy some of the historical highlights we've discovered.