Fit for Kings

Today I accomplished another goal on this trip...I went to Hampton Court Palace, a place of great history. Check that palace off of the Anglophile's To Do List.

Begun in 1515, Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII, transition Hampton Court from a medieval manor into a palace for himself. After visiting in 1514 with his first Queen, Katherine of Aragon visited for the first time. Henry liked it so much that he claimed it for himself. After Wolsey lost his fortune, power, and prestige, he gave up Hampton Court to Henry. Henry made vast improvements to the Palace, building the Great Hall with its richly ornamented ceiling and the Chapel Royal with a fan-vaulted wooden ceiling. The 16th century kitchens provide a glimpse into what it would have been like to prepare food for hundreds of people on a regular basis.

Hampton Court is also the location for many of the joyous and tragic moments in Henry's life. Jane Seymour gave birth to Prince Edward in 1537, who was baptized in the Chapel Royal. Jane then died shortly after the birth. Henry's 5th wife, the silly Catherine Howard, was interrogated and kept under house arrest at the palace in 1541 after Henry learned of her supposed dalliances and possible adulterous behaviors. And Henry married his final wife Katheryn Parr in the Chapel Royal in 1543.

The Palace found a new life under William III and Mary II, who transformed large portions of the buildings into what its present form. In 1689, Sir Christopher Wren demolished large parts of the Tudor palaces and built new Grand Halls and a series of State Rooms. These apartments today are filled with porcelain, furniture, paintings, and tapestries. These privy rooms weren't actually used as private bedchambers, but were as viewing rooms for visiting with the royals. These series of State Rooms would slowly decrease the crowd of courtiers from who wanted to see the king and queen down to who actually was able to meet and converse with the king and queen.  For William III,  he kept a series of private apartments on the ground floor below his State Rooms.

And behind the scenes were true people who helped and served the royals with the very private of private activities. Exhibits also were devoted to the servants and people who served the royalty, such as the Pages of the Bedchamber, the Laundress of the Body, and the Seamstress and Starcher.

Hampton Court also has a lovely series of gardens. The 59-acres of gardens are made up of Tudor and Knot Gardens, rose gardens, a Maze (a Wren-work), and fountains, and Orangery and Exotics Garden.

I enjoyed tea and cake after walking through all of the gardens and palace, and my favorite aspect was being in the place that hosted so much history that I have learned about. Walking through the hallways with the rounded domed ceilings by the kitchens, I couldn't help imagine what it would have been like to be in those very cold and cavernous hallways when unprecedented events were happening above in Henry's Great Hall. It was truly awe-inspiring to be on site.

Photos from the day can be found here.

Before and After Death - The Tower and The Cathedral

For my first day in London, I decided to do the two things I wanted to see the most - The Tower of London (never been) and St. Paul's Cathedral (have been but don't remember.)

Successfully commuting in from Cambridge to King's Cross and then taking the Tube (once an urbanite, always an urbanite), I arrived at the Tower of London on a brightly sunny and gorgeous day, contrasting to the morbid history of the site I was on. I arrived just in time to catch a tour by a Yeoman Warder, aka Beefeater. Of the many things told but what I found most fascinating is the change in tower architecture for defensive towers. Before the Crusades, towers were square. After the Crusades, they were round. 

The Tower also has the only surviving medieval palace in Britain, dating back to the 1200s, which stands in the wall above Traitor's Gate. Prisoners were brought o the Tower through the Gate, two of which were quite famous and queens - Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. 

Speaking of Anne Boleyn, I stood where she, and many others, lost their heads, which was quite powerful. Moving on to see where she spent her time before her death, I made my way through the White Tower. It currently houses the Royal Armory, and does not show many signs to the fact that the White Tower used to be the prison and execution site. Other "guests" of the White Tower were Sir Thomas More, Lady Jane Grey, and most famously, Princes Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, also known as the Princes in the Tower, who disappeared and were said to have been either killed by their Uncle Richard or were spirited away to Ireland...Digression...There were two small skeletons found behind a staircase in the White Tower during Charles II's reign. It is thought that these may be the remains of the Princes, which are now interred at Westminster Abbey.  Now that Richard III's remains were discovered and confirmed last year in Leicester, these skeletons will be tested for DNA and compared to Richard III's for confirmation if the tower skeletons are related to Richard, thus proving them to be his nephews. A 540ish mystery may come to an end.

What was quite striking was the vastness of the complex and various architectural styles represented, from Saxon to Norman all the way up to Georgian, as seen in the Hospital buildings and houses. (Evidently, according to my Beefeater tour guide, there are still people who live with their families at the Tower.)

Taking the opportunity to walk, I found my way from the Tower west to St. Paul's Cathedral. Not able to take pictures of the interior, I am not able to describe the awesomeness of the gilded and colorful altars or ceilings. The crypt holds the remains of many famous people. I accidentally walked on Joshua Reynolds and JMW Turner and saw the monuments to Robert Hooke, William Blake, Alexander Fleming, and Lord Nelson. The coffin that Nelson is buried in was originally made for Cardinal Wolsey, but when he fell of favor with Henry VIII, he did not receive such a stately burial. The coffin was put into storage for about two hundred years until it was used for Nelson when he died at the Battle of Trafalgar. 

Taking advantage of the perfect weather, I climbed to the Golden Gallery on the top of Wren's great Dome - 550+ steps. And it was worth it for the panoramic views of the London, and the melding of historic architecture and newly modern developments like the Shard.

Photos from the day can be found here. 

Experiencing History and Magic

On this lovely sunny and breezy Sunday, I made my way into Cambridge to see what this town is all about since it is so near and dear to my nearest and dearest friends. It was described to me by a friend as, "one of my favorite places on the planet" and another as "just a magical little bubble."

I was guided by my incredibly knowledgeable host, who had something to say about literally everything we passed. In essence, I just followed her and listened.

We first made our way to Chesterton's St. Andrew's Church, to see a medieval wall painting of the Final Judgement.

Walking into town by way of the Midsummer Common and through Jesus Green, we first stopped at St. John's College. Entering St. John's through the gateway with the Tudor coat of arms, we walked along the quads (not through the grass because only Fellows (American equivalent are Professors) are allowed to walk on the grass*) to stand on Kitchen Bridge to see the Bridge of Sighs and watch people punting on the Cam. The Bridge of Sighs, built in the 19th century, was inspired by the covered bridge at the Doge's Palace in Venice.

*According to Cambridge lore, there is evidently "a load of special ducks" that would sit on the green in Emmanuel College. It was noticed that the ducks would sit on the green, which is not allowed since only Fellows are allowed on the green. Therefore, logic would dictate the following three options:
1. It doesn't matter that ducks are on the green. Ducks sit on grass and do not abide by historic precedent for their nesting needs.
2. Let anyone walk on the green.
3. Make the ducks Fellows so that they would be aligned with Cambridge rules and traditions and therefore allowed on the green.

Emmanuel College went with the most logical option, number three. No examples are yet known of students being lectured by a duck, yet.

Venturing onwards to see the next in the series of the "Big Three" Colleges, Trinity College. The largest college, Trinity College was founded in 1546 when Henry VIII consolidated many smaller colleges on the site. The one thing I really wanted to see was the Wren Library. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1695, the library contains many special collections,such as 1,250 medieval manuscripts, early Shakespeare editions, and many of Sir Isaac Newton's own book. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go inside, but I did at least see it from the outside.

To see the College that I've heard the most about, we next went to Trinity Hall, which was founded in 1350. Trinity Hall was founded by the Bishop of Norwich to promote the study of law since so many lawyers had died of the Black Death. Law still remains one of the College's strengths.

Lastly, we ended the College tour with King's College. Founded by Henry VI in 1441, the College's most famous feature is it's Chapel. The most exquisite aspect is the glorious van faulting, which is the largest fan vault in the world measuring 289 feet. Henry VIII sponsored the stained-glass window and gifted the organ, which is engraved with his initials and Anne Boleyn's thus dating the organ to the three years he was married to her from 1533 to 1536.

Walking through the center of town, we wandered around the Market, which has been in place since the Medieval age. It was quite amazing to be perusing goods in the same place that people have been doing the very same activity for hundreds of years. 

That time period of several hundred years pales in comparison to my next stop - The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. I held a hand axe that is 800,000 years old and a pebble chopper that is approximately 1.2 million years old. It was honestly astounding. Receiving literally the Grand Tour of the museum from my tour guide (who happens to work there), it was amazing to see all the hard and very cool work she does every day.

Walking home along the Cam, I concluded that Cambridge is magical.

Photos from the day can be found here.

Rediscovering England - The Itinerary

The more I researched and read and planned for my upcoming trip, the more excited I am!

Countdown until departure = 6 Days!

After reading through two of my favorite traveling planning books (Frommer's England and the Best of Wales and DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Britain), I've come up with an overwhelming list of things to do, places to go, sites to see.

And my list is....

East Anglia
Cambridge
Ely
Saffron Walden
Norwich
Colchester

East Midland
Lincoln
Chatsworth House
Burghley House

London
Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
St. Paul's Cathedral (and yes, I'm going to the top of Wren's Dome!)
National Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
Victoria and Albert Museum
Royal London Hospital Museum
Hampton Court (if time allows)

I'll have a home base in Cambridge, which is near and dear to a few of my nearest and dearest, so I'm glad to finally experience the magic of this old town. It will also make traveling easier to have one place to stay and to "fake live" in England for two weeks. It'll be interesting to experience what it is like to live in not only another city but also another country for a brief period of time.

More to come...

St. Paul’s Cathedral: A Search for Inspiration

For there, above my head, rising with glorious disregard from a low jumble of roofs and smoking chimneys, was the dome I had seen from Hampstead, only now it soared before me, its vaulting magnificence held by a vast coronet of pillars. The columned lantern at its summit reached upwards into the smoke-bruised sky…There was nothing of supplication in its appeal to Heaven, nothing of the humility before God so beloved of the Bible…It rose from the mud as a magnificent testament to the boundless ambitions of men, realized in all their inexorable glory.

This passage from the Nature of Monsters, by Clare Clark, is a description by Eliza, the protagonist, of her first viewing of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. In 1718, Eliza arrives in London as the maid to an apothecary. The position had been arranged for her by her mother and the family of the father of her unborn child, a wealthy merchant’s son, to smooth over the scandal of their attachment. Eliza finds herself in the clamor and chaos of eighteenth-century London struggling to free herself and to survive, with a view of the dome of St. Paul’s as a source of salvation.

After the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed most of Central London, Christopher Wren (1632-1723) dominated the rebuilding of the city, and English architecture, for the rest of the century. His major and most famous project was rebuilding St. Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the city.

Eight years after the Great Fire, the ruins of St. Paul’s original structure had not been replaced or restored. Attempts to salvage the burned-out medieval church failed. Wren began demolishing the old building to make room for the new. The first stones were laid in the summer of 1675 and the last 35 years later.

For a faith with a profound distrust of Catholicism, Wren drew upon monumental Catholic examples in his design for St. Paul’s as the cathedral of the Diocese of London. As similar to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, St. Paul’s has a long nave, short transepts with semicircular ends, and a domed crossing. Commanding the city’s skyline, the dome for St. Paul’s has an interior masonry vault with an exterior sheathing of lead-covered wood, similar to the dome of the Florence Cathedral, and crowned by a lantern. Paired Corinthian columns line the main west front. The tremendous size of the Cathedral, complexity of form, and triumphant verticality make it a major monument of the English Baroque period.

Wren returned to England after travels in France in the 1660s and brought with him architectural books, drawings, engravings, and a great admiration of French classical Baroque design. St. Paul’s was to be the central point of Wren’s visionary redesign of London, where streets were to be extended from it. His artistic vision was to crown London’s skyline with a great domed church like the great European cities. Wren envisioned a modern European city with a series of intersecting avenues. But it was not to be had and the city remained along its ancient topographical lines.

The sheer enormity of St. Paul’s must have struck the everyday eighteenth-century Londoner with such awe at the ability and modern power to create such a building. In a time when life was dangerous, poverty was rampant, and destitution was a reality, the solidity of St. Paul’s Cathedral hopefully provided inspiration and hope as “as a magnificent testament to the boundless ambitions of men” to many, as it did for Eliza.

Sources:
London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd
Art History by Marilyn Stokstad