Leaving Shakespeare and poetry behind, we drove south from Stratford toward an even earlier English landmark of the written word, Runnymede, where on the 15th of June, 1215 (800 years plus three days before we arrived ...) King John -- under some duress from his Barons -- affixed his seal to The Great Charter, Magna Carta.
No one of course, knows exactly where the event took place. Some historical killjoys believe it wasn't in the meadow at Runnymede at all, but on a nearby island in the Thames. Since the Barons didn't trust the King -- who was decidedly reluctant -- the case is made that the Barons insisted on the island in order to guard against any kind of treacherous Royal behavior and to keep the King's soldiers at a comfortable distance, and to keep the King from bolting.
The general area contains a number of monuments of varying solemnity.
The American Bar Association installed a monument to Magna Carta in 1957. (The English Bar apparently never considered it necessary ...)
and there is also a monument to President Kennedy.
On either side of the road that runs through Runnymede are two pavilions designed by the famous English architect Sir Edward Lutyens and built in 1931. The inscriptions are suitably weighty.
Not so this cheeky billboard put up by the local hotel:
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| English billboard wit
Continuing on the Churchill Tour, we headed toward his country house in Kent, Chartwell.
Churchill purchased Chartwell -- a house originally built in the 16th century -- in 1922, and he lived there with his family until shortly before his death in 1965.
Chartwell is no McMansion. It's a large, comfortable, family house in the countryside, less than forty miles from the Houses of Parliament.
Churchill lived off his government salaries and even more so, by dint of his writings -- books and journalistic pieces. Most of what he made went into this house and its 80 acres of grounds, which he was constantly adding to and improving.
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| Churchill didn't play much croquet, but he was apparently a world-class kibbitzer |
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| Churchill standing by the fish pond |
In addition to his fish, Churchill kept many animals and birds on the premises, and he would develop sentimental attachments to them. The story is told that one evening at dinner, Churchill demurred from carving the roasted goose, passing the knife and fork to his wife, Clementine, saying to her, "I can't do it Clemmie; he was a friend of mine!"
He was an avid gardener, and the house is surrounded by beautiful and
not overly formal gardens.
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| The vegetable garden is extensive |
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| Many of Churchill's paintings can be seen in the studio, and some are quite marvelous. |
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| A fine piece of masonry |
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| They didn't let us sign .... |
It may only have been thirty-odd miles into London, but it took us almost an hour and half to drive there from Chartwell. Instead of incurring the £11.50 ($18.00) "congestion charge" we dropped our car at the Hertz depot near Victoria Station, just outside the boundary of the Congestion Zone, and squeezed ourselves and all our luggage into a taxi.
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| Just barely room for the boater .... |
Our London hotel was a nicely restored pile, operated by Marriott.
And in keeping with the theme of our day, the hotel was located right next door
to a building with this plaque on its wall:
We were heading out to meet Rick and Sally for dinner at Dinner By Heston Blumenthal. Since this restaurant had only recently been rated Number Seven in the whole world http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/Dinner-by-Heston-Blumenthal we figured we'd get dressed up a little.
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| I hadn't worn a tie since the Queen Mary 2. |
It was a beautiful evening, and since we were heading for a big meal, we decided to walk the mile and a half. The hotel is located in a nice neighborhood.
There was nice yard art all along our walk.
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| Outside Buck House |
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| Marble Arch |
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| Wellington Monument |
The menu at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal loosely recreates historic English dishes and recipes from the past eight or nine centuries. You can see the menu at this link:
Perhaps the most celebrated dish on the menu is the Meat Fruit, circa 1500.
Perhaps the most celebrated dish on the menu is the Meat Fruit, circa 1500.
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| Meat Fruit. e.g. meat that looks like fruit. |
Among other delicious desserts, they have this Rube Goldberg liquid nitrogen contraption to make ice cream cones tableside.
We got a tour of the kitchen after our meal. It's quite an operation.
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| The pineapple rotisserie |
And speaking of meals, if we hadn't been dining with Sally and Rick (and of course, if we would have been invited!) we might instead have attended the banquet that same evening at Aspley House, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Duke of Wellington's triumph over Napoleon at Waterloo. It's reported that the Iron Duke's own commemorative china and silver service were in use.
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| Aspley House. Right on Hyde Park Corner. London residence of the Duke of Wellington |
The current Duke was entertaining a suitable gathering of military and civilian grandees, including the Prince of Wales whom we were told, had departed only a few minutes before we walked past.
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the RAF Bomber Command Memorial, commemorating the British flyers who in time, showed Hitler and the rest of those Nazis what a Blitz was really all about.
And then on the block just before our hotel, appeared this plaque memorializing Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, who was a close friend and literary collaborator of Churchill's. Blunt was a poet, but as well he was an anti-colonialist diplomat, a leading horseman, and a notorious philanderer.
His somewhat overwrought verse held me in thrall when I was a callow undergraduate, so I am unable to resist concluding this entry with the addition of three of Blunt's poems that spoke to my much younger self back in the day....
His somewhat overwrought verse held me in thrall when I was a callow undergraduate, so I am unable to resist concluding this entry with the addition of three of Blunt's poems that spoke to my much younger self back in the day....
