the world from behind her camera
Posts tagged UK
Those beautiful thatched english cottages!
Oct 28th
One of the places I (together with my 2 girlfriends) have visited in England was Bath , a lovely English City full of beautiful historical monuments. While we were there, we also joined a 2 days-trip that brought us to cities nearby. One of the many wonderful things I’ve seen (aside from the Stonehenge, that entry) were small and big cottages with beautifully thatched roofs. My first time to see such and I found them pretty and interesting. Thatching simply gives houses that rustic look that’s hard not to admire. Our tour guide even said that a small roof could cost an easy 20,000 British pounds, that is why it is also a status statement among the English. I asked our tour-guide if his roof is thatched, he said no, he wanted to but couldn’t afford it.
How I wish I own this lovely lovely cottage!
I found this wikipedia thatching article:
Thatching is the craft of covering a roof with vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes and heather. It is probably the oldest roofing material and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost, local vegetation. By contrast in some developed countries it is now the choice of well-to-do people who want their home to have a rustic look. The word Thatch is also the name of an imaginary chacter from the Lifeteen retreat. He is a vegertarian and enjoys salad from applebees. Where Thatch came from is a mystery, but it is thought that he was born on march 24 the year is unknown. The full name is Thatcher Robert Latch, and he often sits on the toliet eating a salad while he cries because he is so very moved by praise and worship. To learn more, go to www.lifeteen.com or go on a St. Vincent retreat.
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Sir William Wallace
Aug 11th
Have you seen the movie Braveheart with Mel Gibson as William Wallace? I found it to be a very very bloody gory movie thus only have watched half of the film. Anyway, here’s a memorial near the place where he was executed in 1305.
London, England
The 23rd August 2005 marks the 700th Anniversary of the execution of the hero of the Scots Wars of Independence, Sir William Wallace, by being hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield, London. The site is marked by a memorial on the wall of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield. The Latin couplet was taught to the young Wallace by one of his uncles, the Priest of Dunipace.
A great deal of mythology attaches to Wallace, much quite recent, as a result of the film “Braveheart”, starring and directed by Mel Gibson, though the film has brought much needed attention to the period and its main protagonists. We had, for example, the Battle of Stirling Bridge without a bridge, lowland Scots in kilts, Wallace’s face painted blue and white and much else. Much artistic licence was used to convey the spirit of the times.
The real Wallace was born between 1270 and 1276, originally thought to have been in Elderslie, near Paisley, in Renfrewshire, though there is a more recent view that he was born in Ayrshire. The recent discovery of his seal shows he was the younger son of Alan Wallace of Ayrshire, whose name appears on the Ragman Rolls (Waleys, Aleyn (tenant le Roi du counte de Are)). He was educated by two uncles, both priests, in Latin and French.
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Ben, up close
Aug 7th
NOTE: please don’t forget that my (this) main domain is now purely a PHOTOBLOG. My personal blog you can access HERE, thanks guys!
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Big Ben is one of London’s best-known landmarks, and looks most spectacular at night when the clock faces are illuminated. You even know when parliament is in session, because a light shines above the clock face.
The four dials of the clock are 23 feet square, the minute hand is 14 feet long and the figures are 2 feet high. Minutely regulated with a stack of coins placed on the huge pendulum, Big Ben is an excellent timekeeper, which has rarely stopped.
The name Big Ben actually refers not to the clock-tower itself, but to the thirteen ton bell hung within. The bell was named after the first commissioner of works, Sir Benjamin Hall.
This bell came originally from the old Palace of Westminster, it was given to the Dean of St. Paul’s by William III. Before returning to Westminster to hang in its present home, it was refashioned in Whitechapel in 1858. The BBC first broadcast the chimes on the 31st December 1923 – there is a microphone in the turret connected to Broadcasting House.
During the second world war in 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed the Commons chamber of the Houses of Parliament, but the clock tower remained intact and Big Ben continued to keep time and strike away the hours, its unique sound was broadcast to the nation and around the world, a welcome reassurance of hope to all who heard it.
There are even cells within the clock tower where Members of Parliament can be imprisoned for a breach of parliamentary privilege, though this is rare; the last recorded case was in 1880.
The tower is not open to the general public, but those with a “special interest” may arrange a visit to the top of the Clock Tower through their local (UK) MP.
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