Colourful Britain [antikvár]

In the days when the power of the Roman legions straddled this land, through present day England, Wales and parts of Scotland, they called the portion of the island they occupied Britannia.England, the home of the Mother of Parliaments and a "green and pleasant land", has a wealth of scenery to delight the eye. There are the mountains and tarns of the Lake District; the windswept moors of the Pennines; the rolling Yorkshire Dales; the sleepy Cotswold villages, unchanged with time; the warm seashores of Cornwall, washed by the Gulf Stream; the bustling capital of London with the mighty River Thames at its heart; prehistoric Stonehenge standing on the sweep of Salisbury Plain; historic towns and cities like York; the cries of birds echoing over the desolate Fens of East Anglia; farmers ploughing their hedgerow-lined fields, and dry-stone walls which march over the uplands.The immense variety of vistas almost seems to take the traveller unawares. Who would think that this relatively small country could contain such diversity? Leave behind the busy thoroughfares of any crowded town and you can see the undulating countryside before you; golden com sways in the summer breezes under a blue sky containing ever-changing patterns of clouds; dense copses of trees stand silent with the weight ofyears; lambs dance sprightly in fields of verdure; rivers and streams wend their ways to the sea, which is sometimes calm and restful, but often displays the fierce force of turbulent nature as waves pound the nation's sea-girt walls.Scodand is a majestic country of rugged beauty, with a turbulent history as its people fought to maintain their clan heritage and identity. For Sir Walter Scott it was the "Land of brown heath and shaggy wood;Land of the mountain and the flood!"It is also a country of jewel-like lochs; towering, scented conifers; bracken-covered moors; finest malt whiskies; castle strongholds; golf courses of international renown and a special kind of people. The landscapes are of a particularly wild and natural beauty, interwoven with a melancholic sense of history and strife. There have been heroes made of such men as Robert the Bruce and Sir William Wallace, both doughty fighters against the English Sassenachs. There were bloody battles fought at Bannockbum and CuUoden, and there was defeat when the Scottish came south to Flodden Field:"Dool and wae for the order, sent our lads to the Border!The English, for ance, by guile wan the day;The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost.The prime of our land, are cauld in the clay." (lean Elliot)There are still many places here in Scotland that have not been changed by the hand of time - Glencoe broods with an air of menace where the Macdonalds were slain by their treacherous guests.The islands dotted around its coasts are places of enchantment, repositories of ancient culture and myth. It is a proud nation, now enjoying increasing prosperity with the advent of the North Sea oil industry.Wales is a mountainous country, divided by beautiful valleys, and crystal streams and rivers including the Sevem, Clwyd, Conway and Usk. It is blessed with wonderful scenery along the rugged Pembrokeshire coast; the magnificent Snowdonia National Park or the glacier-scoured hills of the Brecon Beacons. It is a land of legend, where King Arthur's wizard. Merlin, lived in his crystal cave. He was the child of a wizard and a princess, gifted with prophecy, becoming a prominent personage at the court of King Arthur, where his wealth of knowledge was much sought after. Wales is also a country which has produced great singers and fine poets, such as Dylan Thomas:"All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay-Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air And playing, lovely and watery And fire green as grass."Much of the varied and historic attractions of colourful Britain lie around the next comer! It was J.B. Priestley who said that, "it would not surprise me if somebody decided to follow some tiny overgrown lane and then found that at the end of it Camelot was still there, with nettles thick around a dusty Round Table.''