English Footpaths

What can I say about walking in the Yorkshire Dales, except to note how different it is from walking in the mountains of the Northwest. Our trails are rugged and wild, while many of the footpaths in Yorkshire go right across farmer's fields and along gentle streams, in much tamer country.  However, the high moors and valleys can offer broad, lonely vistas and wild weather, and you still need to be prepared for sudden storms, even in summer.

One of the things we love about walking in England is that many of the footpaths are centuries old. They were essential for people to get to market, or from town to town, for a long time.

Many of the footpaths are centuries old. You often come across Roman or even prehistoric ruins along the paths. In former times, new footpaths were formed when a body was carried for burial across a new route. These "litchpaths" as they were called, then became incorporated as public paths. 

Most of the time, it's best to have a good map to follow a footpath, and then you simply look for the signposts.  Very old signposts have pointers that look more like fingers than arrows.  They are called "parsons," because they point the way you're supposed to go, even if the parson doesn't follow it! I'm not sure, however, if anyone still calls them parsons.

Today there are organizations that try and walk every footpath in Britain just to maintain these public rights of way as a matter of common law.  For if a path falls out of use, it will be much easier for the farmer to reclaim it.

Sometimes there is tension between the farmers and the walkers, which I can understand. As much as I like to have the freedom to walk the fields, the farmers have a point too.  They don't like their livestock disturbed--or even killed.  Sadly, we came across this sign in one area:

Why are there always people who think the rules do not apply to them? They are the people who ruin it for others.  We don't have a dog, but we do try and observe the rules and stay directly on the path, as we hike across the fields and go up and over stiles.

Are you having fun yet, Kevin?

Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales

"Cute" is an overused word. I tried to think of other words for Grassington, but those words are also either overused or a little bit formal or strained.  I kept coming back to "cute," because I really think Grassington is one of the cutest villages I've ever seen.

Our delightful old stone cottage was right off the main street, tucked back along a little alleyway or lane, that people in Grassington call a "fold." 

The windows to the left of the chocolate shop are our windows--the lounge on the lower floor and a bedroom on the top.  Our door is just barely visible. The inside was very comfortable, though the kitchen was bigger than the lounge (living room).

Kevin at home in the Yorkshire Dales.

But what temptations, with a chocolate shop, a bookstore next door, and the pub only 23 paces away! Here's the pub, The Forrester's Arms:

The pub had a quiz night on Mondays, but we were too tired to go, having spent most days taking walks.

Who knew dogs and children were big trivia fans?

The butcher shop was right up the street. One day, Kevin saw another butcher's van in town with a sign on the back: "Sausages are not left in this van overnight."  We didn't know if it was a real attempt to deter thieves or just good old British humor.

The hardware store on the same block seemed to have everything--even needles and thread--and the people there were very friendly.

I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of The Corner Cafe, our favorite coffee shop, particularly favored because it had wifi, which sadly our beautiful little cottage lacked.  (That was about all it lacked though.)

We chose Grassington because it is a walking center with many walks leaving right from our door, or just a short bus ride away. We are also doing without a car on this leg of our trip, to save money in an expensive country, so having the good transport links helped tremendously. We really didn't do much while we were there but walk, relax, and eat. 

Durham: A Cathedral and a Castle

Inside the castle walls. (I'm so tired of that Anorak, but it's been cool everywhere!)

Durham holds a unique place in English history. Because the English king could not effectively govern that far north, in 1075, he made the Bishop of Durham a Prince Bishop, with powers to levy taxes and raise armies—effectively making the Bishop of Durham the ruler of the region as long as he swore loyalty to the crown. That status lasted for centuries.

Durham Cathedral makes a stately presence over the green it shares with the castle.

Durham Cathedral is considered the finest Norman cathedral in Europe.  It dates from 1093, and it has been extended and remodeled over the centuries. (We saw a line in the floor—very near the door—that marked the small area where women were permitted to enter in medieval days. It would have been unthinkable to let them get any closer to the altar!) 

Additions are still being made to the cathedral.  I wouldn't expect to like seeing a new window in such an old, historic structure. But one of my favorite stained-glass windows at Durham was the Transfiguration Window, which was installed in 2011. It all blends together well. 

What impressed me more than the shrine of St. Cuthbert was the tomb of the "Venerable Bede" (St. Bede), which is also in Durham Cathedral. He lived sometime between 673-735. I remember studying him in my European medieval history course, so it was interesting to find his resting place. I found him fascinating not for his religious associations, but because he was known as a great scholar who wrote and translated about 40 books, including some on nature, astronomy, and poetry. He is celebrated as the first English historian.

Charles Rennie Macintosh Day

We spent one day in Glasgow, taking the train from Stirling, where we found a B&B that was much cheaper than those available in the larger city.  (I was disappointed in my photos of Stirling.  None really turned out well, so I have left those out of the blog.) Glasgow was another story entirely.

Our day in Glasgow was truly “Charles Rennie Macintosh Day,” because our stay there involved an in-depth look at this seminal architect/designer’s work. Part of the Arts and Crafts movement, Macintosh, and his wife and collaborator, Margaret McDonald, created some marvelous designs, but neither were successful in their lifetimes.  You can see some influences of Macintosh in the work of later architects and designers, including Frank Lloyd Wright.

Glasgow School of Art showing some smoke damage .

We began the day with a tour at the Glasgow School of Art.  Macintosh won the commission for the school design in a competition when he was only a young draftsman at a local architecture firm.  The building was constructed over a period of several years, and Macintosh changed the design during the process, and the building shows the evolution of his work.

Sadly, the art school was badly damaged in a fire a couple of years ago, but amazingly, the interior structure remains intact, so it is being rebuilt.  Much of the furniture and wooden artifacts were lost, but because the building had recently been digitally mapped, it can be restored. Work is progressing, but much more money is needed. Some wealthy benefactors, including actor Brad Pitt, a Macintosh fan, are helping to raise the funds required for the restoration.

Following our insightful tour, we lunched at the Willow Tea Rooms, a recreation of a tearoom that Macintosh designed for a local socialite in 1904.  He even designed the silverware for the original tearoom. The reconstruction offers only standard restaurant flatware, but it was a treat to experience the ambiance of the place.

 

Upstairs at the Willow Tea Rooms. (The photos of the tea rooms were taken early in the day. When
we returned their for lunch, the place was packed!)

The Willow Tea Rooms, recreated as they were back in the day.

Our final stop was the House for an Art Lover, a 1901 design that Macintosh, with Macdonald’s help, submitted to a competition.  Neither he nor the other competitors won the prize, because of some arcane rule that was not followed, but Macintosh was singled out for recognition and received some prize money.  In 1989-1996, the house was built to the design that Macintosh and his wife had created.

Oh, what I would give to live in this house!

 

The elegant dining room.

Chair designed by Macintosh.

Light streams into the music room from the balcony.

The piano in the music room.

Ceiling detail from dining room.

What is especially gratifying is to see Margaret Macdonald is finally getting recognized as well as her husband. In an era when male architects and designers got all the press, she was often overlooked.  Macintosh himself said, “I am a good architect, but Margaret is a genius.”  I think they were both geniuses.

Wall panels built to Margaret's design.

Close up of panel built to Margaret Macdonald's design.

Behind the Scenes with a Street Performer

While Kevin and I were eating a light supper in a pub in Edinburgh, we caught sight of a young man across the street.  He was a street performer, one of those people who stand like statues in public areas to collect coins from passersby.  We felt as though we were getting an inside look (or in this case, an outside look) at how he emerged from his costume.  Instead of a dressing room, this actor used the street:

Photos courtesy of Kevin G. Imper

Meeting a Celebrity in Edinburgh

The Royal Mile Edinburgh on a quiet morning.

We only spent a couple of days in Edinburgh on this trip. For me, our visit brought back memories of my last visit when we lived in England in 1989-90, and my friends Sheri and Marney came to visit, but it was Kevin's first visit to the city.

We visited many of the usual tourist sites and also the Scottish National Gallery of Art, where Kevin could view works by two of his favorite artists, Henry Moore and Francis Bacon.

Earthwork outside of the art museum.

The new Scottish Parliament building was also high on our agenda.  I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan. The building attempts to bring in elements of Scotland with stones that resemble those of ancient monuments, wood that echoes the forest, and projections on the front of the building that look like ancient spears. Plaques with quotes from Scottish writers are also embedded in its walls. But it seems, to me, to be trying too hard, and it doesn't fit well with Holyrood Palace, right across the street. But that's just my opinion.

I guess I’m just getting to be a curmudgeon.  (OK, so “getting to be,” might be an understatement.) I was also incensed at what has happened to the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh.  I remembered it from my previous visit to Edinburgh, and wanted Kevin to see it. Then, it was simply the Victorian camera obscura. Then, I climbed the stair, and reaching the room at the top, I saw the projected image of the city of Edinburgh.  I thought it was wonderful.  But now, apparently that’s not enough for our digital world. 

Tower hosting the camera obscura

Now, the site is billed as the “Camera Obscura and the World of Illusions,” and the owners have tarted it up with mirrors and optical illusions.  No! No! No!  It should be enough to see what our predecessors marveled at and be amused at this antiquated treasure.  Of course, they now want the equivalent of about $18.45 to view it, and you can’t simply pay to see the camera obscura alone, so we declined the opportunity.

Kevin takes in Edinburgh Castle.

The highlight of Edinburgh, for me, was Edinburgh Castle.  We had a great guide, Frank, who made the castle and its history come alive with a mixture of historical stories and humor.  As I remembered from before, he recounted how in Greenwich, the international prime meridian, the troops fire off twelve cannon rounds every day at noon, as they have for (centuries?) so ships at sea could synchronize their clocks.  But the thrifty Scots changed that tradition. In Edinburgh, for ships anchored in the Firth of Forth, the Scots, even today, fire their signal at 1 p.m. And that requires only one cannon shot, which represents a significant savings of ammunition! (But we were there on Sunday, the one day they don’t fire a shot.) 

What really made the day special was that we had a celebrity on our tour (wait for it)—Shaun the Sheep!  Yes, I confess that I am a big Shaun the Sheep fan. I like it so much that I’m tempted to make an affection for Shaun, the claymation character created by Nick Park of Wallace and Grommit fame, as a litmus test for friendship.  If you don’t like Shaun the Sheep, then there’s something wrong with you! 

The young couple from Germany who are carrying our woolly hero have a Facebook page and website called, “Shaun on Tour.”  I couldn't find it, but maybe you can? There are a few sites with the same idea, people who are bringing Shaun with them on their world travels. Why not? Can you imagine a better ambassador for peace? You don’t have to know English to enjoy the adventures of the crafty sheep and his winsome flock. I will close with the final lines from the Shaun The Sheep song: “Perhaps some day/ you’ll find a way/ to come and meet with Shaun the Sheep, to come and bleat with Shaun the Sheep!” (And I did.)

Hint to family:  See the Shaun doll? You know what I want for Christmas, right?

Wee WordsThat Baffled Us

We knew we were in Scotland, when very early in our trip, we came across a couple of posters that we didn't understand. (Or, I should say, we didn't understand everything.)

Let's see what you make of these:

I looked up "wee stoater" (movie poster above) online and found that "stoater" means great or brilliant. So I guess the movie must be a little bit brilliant?  With Emma Thompson in it, I imagine it is!

As for "wee shoogler," the definition of "shoogle" is to shake, although somewhat gently. According to The Scotsman newspaper, which defined it as its word of the week on the 24th of July this year, you would never "shoogle" a can of deodorant or "shoogle" someone awake. So what do you think? Does "wee shooglers" mean "wee wigglers" or "wee shakers"?

We hope your own wee shooglers--whether kids, grandkids, or simply little ones you are fond of are enjoying their summer too!