AUDLEYEND
In 1605 Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk and Lord-treasurer to the King James I started work on what was to become one of the largest and most magnificent country houses in England. It was a huge undertaking. Today, although only a third of its original size, this remains one of the great houses of East Anglia.
In its day Audley End was so magnificent that even the kings of England were worried that the Essex state had grown grander and more impressive than their own royal palaces.
Inside Audley End is a treasure trove of paintings, furniture, and ossign in rooms with striking variety of styles. Dominating the great hall of the house is a massive wooden Jacobine screen superbly covered with distinctive patterns and figures, characteristic of its age, which may originally have been brightly painted. This was a house designed specifically to accommodate royalty as guests, and indeed James I stayed here in 1610 and 1614. Later, Audley End was owned by Charles II.
The family accommodation was usually confined to the ground floor of the house, once the main reception rooms were on the first floor.
This is the dining-room, re-modeled by the third Lord Braberook, who inherited Audley End in 1825. It's presided over by Larkin's magnificent full-length portrait of the forth Lord of Braberook. Lord Braberook also created a colorful sitting-room, in which he housed the cream of Audley End's collection of paintings. Taking pride of place, Venice, by Antonio Canalli Canaletto, depicting a view of the Campanelli and Dodges’ Palace on the bay of St Mark, illustrating Canaletto's brilliant feeling for light. There are outstanding landscapes by the Dutch painter Van Goyen. This is "the Shore", bought for 21 pounds in Christie’s in 1773.
In the north wing now looking almost exactly as it did in photographs taken in 1891, Lady Braberook's sitting room. The commode and cupboards are Louis XVI. There is also fine Louis XIV’ furniture in the library, in the bay window, a superb writing table. Below the south library, Robert Adam's masterpiece of interior design, a wonderful little sitting-room for the ladies to escape to once the gentlemen got started on the port after dinner. Adam also built the bridge on the grounds known as the Tea-house bridge in 1782, the river Cam had already been dammed to make a lake. A boathouse was added in the 19th century to complement the sweeping grounds, laid by Cabability Brown so, too, was an enchanting rose-garden. On the hill to the south a fine temple of Concord was built in 1790 to celebrate George the 3rd recovery from insanity. It has always been hoped that George III would visit Audley End and the apartments were designed and made specifically for the royal guest. The magnificent state bed was completed in 1786. But, alas, the king never used it. Audley End had its own chapel and it is a remarkably complete example of the style known as Carpenter's Gothic. The painted glass over the altar depicts the Last Supper. Except on Sundays when they went to church family and the stuff would pray here every morning, afterwards, breakfast would be served in another of Audley End's huge variety of contrasting rooms. This is the saloon with its extraordinary Jacobine ceiling, decorated with plaster sea monsters and ships. For their breakfast the family would sit here in the saloon's little bay window with its floor specially raised to take advantage of the view. A view over what is still probably, the most memorable estate in, the East of England.
STONEHENGE
A summer sunrise over Salisbury plain and the historical giant that is without doubt the most important prehistoric monument in the whole Britain is brought alive by the early morning light. 3500 years ago this was a temple made up of an outer circle of huge blocks of sandstone called "sarsen" dragged from a site about 20 miles to the north of Stonehenge. The biggest sarsens weigh over 45 tons. Inside the sandstone circle stand the smaller bluestones, brought here over 240 miles from the Prescilley mountains in South Wales. At the focus of a central blue stone horseshoe is a fallen stone that became known as the "altar" stone, a semi-buried block of bluestone from Pembrokeshire. One of the refinements which makes Stonehenge so unusual is the way the stones have been squared to shape by pounding with stone hammers, with the lintels held in place by the sophisticated mortise and tenon stone joints. The original entrance is marked by a fallen slaughter stone and beyond it, in the distance the famous "heel" stone, over which the midsummer sun passes in the longest day of the year when viewed from the center of the stones.
Exactly why and how Stonehenge was built and in what precise way it was used as a temple will remain a mystery forever. What we do know is that this astonishing construction is probably the most remarkable achievement of prehistoric engineering in Europe.
BATTLE ABBEY
You know there is something special about this picturesque litle Sussex town the moment you arrive. It's grown-up beside an abbey which is built on the site of probably the most famous battle in English history. On these fields in October 14, 1066 an invading army of about 7000 troops led by William Duke of Normandy fought and eventually defeated the English army, who were defending the crest of the hill. Legend has it that King Harold was killed by an arrow through his eye and today a stone commemorating his death lies almost exactly where he fell.
William ordered the building of an abbey on the site of his famous victory to atone for the death of so many people. The altar of his church should be here, where his great enemy had fallen. Most of the original abbey buildings were completed in 1100. There were alterations and enlargements in the 13th century and later the 14th century, including the tower on the west of the abbot's guest range.
The monks lived in this huge building which unusually was built into the slope of the hill. All parts of Williams determination of the abbey must be built on the exact site of the battle. That's why the novices' room on the south side has a particularly high-vaulted ceiling supported by a central row of huge pillars, it allows the dormitory above to be built on a level floor. At the other end of the buildings cut into the hill, the monks' common room, has a much lower ceiling which would have helped to keep the room warm in winter. Portable braziers sometimes were brought in during the few leisure periods the monks were allowed. The chapter house like Rievaulx was the place where monks would gather on stone benches once a day to discuss the abbey's business affairs.
Much of the abbot's great hall in the west range has survived after being rebuilt in later centuries. It's now part of the school. On east front the remains of superb cloister arcading along the lower part of the wall. In the late 1330th the gatehouse was built and it remains one of the finest medieval monastic gatehouses in England, a fitting tribute to a moment and a battle that changed the course of English history.
OSBORNE HOUSE
Queen Victoria called this her "dear beautiful Osborne", a seaside home where for fifty years she and her family enjoyed some of the happiest days of their lives.
Osborne was built between 1845 and 1851 under the personal direction of Prince Albert. The view across the sea reminded the Prince of the Bay of Naples and it was perhaps this memory that made him put so much emphasis on the Italian style that echoes through the house and the gardens. Albert had hired a London building contractor, Thomas Cubert to develop the estate using the simple classic lines of the newly fashionable Italian style Cubert had used so effectively in Bloomsbury, Belgravia and Pimblico. Every corner of the terraces had to be filled with copies of Italianmoulds. It was all part of the plan to create an idyllic retreat words away from the rigours of British state ceremonial.
The visitors' entrance to the house is at the west front. Here again classical subjects dominate the eye. The marble winged Victory in the grand corridor was bought by the Queen for Prince Albert at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Osborne was above all a private family house. A picture of the family group including the five eldest royal children was hung here in pride of place in the dining-room on Queen Victoria's birthday in 1849. In those days dinner was served promptly at 8 p.m. But by the end of the century it was 9.15 when the Queen arrived and the company could sit down to eat.
Much of the Queen's day would have been spent upstairs in the sitting-room where she would attend to urgent matters of state. She would work on her dispatch boxes at her desk, while the beloved Prince Consort would sit at his own desk submitting memoranda for the Queen's inspection in his capacity as her personal and private secretary. Later when the Queen grew she had to come down from ner suite on the first floor by a lift hand-operated by an attendant in the basement. The formal drawing-room was downstairs. The Queen described it as an extremely handsome room with its yellow Damask satin curtains and furniture to match. The marble-top table depicting views of Rome was presented to Victoria in 1859 by Pope Pious IX after her visit to Rome with the Prince of Wales. The grand piano was often used by the Queen and other members of the household to entertain guests which often included visiting foreign royalty. The piano and six matching cabinets surmounting the bookcases are decorated with porcelain plagues showing the copies of Italian old master paintings. The Queen withdrew to the drawing-room after dinner whilst the gentlemen retired to the billiards room. The two rooms were cleverly adjoined so that while technically the gentlemen were still in the Queen's presence and required to stand, curtains drawn across the column screen kept them out of sight to do as they chose. The Queen, too, played billiards. She learned the game on this ornate slit table, the frieze panels were designed by Prince Albert. The Prince also conceived the elaborate lightning above the table. Here as elsewhere in the house is the evidence of Albert's great love for Victoria. He also purchased a painting depicting Raphael painting one of his Madonnas. It was not only Albert's taste that strongly influenced the design of Osborne House. Seventeen years after Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1874, a state banqueting hall, the Hors d'oeuvres room was added to the house. Its deeply carved ceiling was made of fibrous plaster. Every surface is richly embellished. 25 workmen worked over 500 hours to produce the Peacockalone. The walls framed with tick are enriched with plaster and papier-mache. The completion of the room in 1893 coincided with the introduction of electricity in Osborne House. These lampstands were specially designed for the room in recognition of this.
Part of hors d'oeuvres room, was designed by Lochwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's father. The principal craftsman was Byram Sing whose portrait by the Austrian court artist Rudolph Svoboda hangs in the corridor outside. Beside it, the Queen's most famous Indian servant Abdul Karim who came to Osborne in 1887 and rose to become her principal Indian secretary. Despite being Empress Queen Victoria never went to India. But in an effort to find out more about the country she commissioned Svoboda to go there and paint portraits of ordinary people from all walks of life. Such was her enthusiasm for all things Indian that the Queen even learnt Hindustani.
The main house is some distance from the sea, and today visitors can enjoy the journey through the estate towards the coast in the same manner the royal family would have done a hundred years ago. Close to the beach is Swiss cottage much favored by the royal children where the family could relax in even greater privacy. Close by - the Queen's bathing-machine with the changing room and it own WC.
In the main house the younger royal children were confined to the nursery suite. The centerpiece here - a superb mahogany-framed swing cradle made for Vicky the Princess Royal in 1840. Nearly are the cots with hinged sides and upholstered pads to protect the children. As was the fashion, marble copies were made of the children's limbs.
There's the hand of Edward, Prince of Wales, aged 14 month and the foot of Princess Victoria who was then 2 years old. The nursery suite was situated so as to provide Victoria and Albert with an easy access from their own private apartments. This is Queen Victoria's bedroom. On the headboard, above the bed, a posthumous picture of Albert who died in 1861 and beside it a holder for his pocketwatch. It was in this room that in January 1901 the Queen herself died. It was, most people agree, the end of an era, as well as the end of a 64-year reign, during which, for one family at least, the most carefree and peaceful days were spent here, in a tranquil corner of the Isle of Wight.
5. ПРИЛОЖЕНИЯ
Приложение 1
Марина МАСЛОВА
О КОМНАТНЫХ РАСТЕНИЯХ - СКВОЗЬ АНГЛИЙСКИЕ ОЧКИ
Скажите, неужели там правда такая зеленая трава?
Или это только на пленке так?
Сергей П., студент гр. 1151 (2001)
Всё в самом деле так. И трава в Англии (правда, дело было весной) зеленая-зеленая, и среди травы растут те самые daffodils, про которые писал Вордсворт, и поскольку растут они, как у нас одуванчики, то их с удовольствием топчут и жуют громадные английские овцы в черных разбойничьих масках. И каждый кусочек земли - пусть даже размером с носовой платок - любовно возделан и ухожен.
Но все это известно - даже если не увиденные воочию, но по книгам и видео. Любопытно другое: оказывается любовь и интерес к растениям отличала англичан всегда. Чтобы понять это, достаточно изучить любое руководство для любителей комнатных растений - ну а затем зайти в цветочный магазин и посмотреть на все сквозь "английские очки".
Итак, полистаем энциклопедию...
Начнем с растения, чьи желто-оранжево-зеленые крупные листья украшают полки любого цветочного магазина. Кодиеум, избалованный южный красавец, привезен из Индии примерно в 1860 г. английским садоводом и собирателем растений Джоном Гоулдом Вейчем. Трудно сказать, чего это растение принесет вам больше - радости или хлопот, но его оригинальный вид несомненно привлечет ваше внимание.
Комнатное растение, похожее на изящную елочку, носит экзотическое имя − араукария. С момента ее волнующей встречи с совершавшим кругосветное путешествие капитаном Куком (да-да, тем самым…) прошло много лет. Теперь лишь специалисты-ботаники (а теперь и читатели Эльфа) знают, что Кук впервые нашел эту красавицу в 1775 г. на островах Норфолк в Тихом океане. В этой экспедиции, кстати, принимал участие и не менее знаменитый ботаник − сэр Джозеф Бэнкс. С именем Бэнкса, президента Королевского Ботанического общества, связано появление в Европе стрелиции − растения, похожего одновременно и на цветущий куст, и на букет из желто-оранжево-синих цветов.