Sadly, we left Yorkshire
behind, but as I have stressed, there is something
interesting and new to be discovered in England at
every turn, even if it is substantially south of the
Yorkshire Dales.
Happily wandering around
Warwick market square, we dropped into the Rose &
Crown, firstly because it looked out onto the market
square and secondly because there seemed precious
few other pubs to chose from. Subsequent research
has revealed a plethora of pubs in the city, but we
could not find them. Which was a pity really, because
I would hazard a guess that any one of them would
have been better than this one.
It promised much and delivered
nothing. On the outside, it had lovely old windows...
that could not be appreciated from the inside. It
had real hand-drawn local cider that looked tantalizing…
and tasted diabolical. It had some interesting beers…
the first of which put me off the idea of trying any
others. In addition it had a loud fruit machine, an
unfriendly atmosphere and virtually no customers.
Our timing could be wrong, and this place might be
the greatest pub on the Planet Earth on a Saturday
night, though I would be rather surprised if that
were the case.
As if by compensation for
this, the rest of the town provided us with a pleasant
day out. The town of Warwick is a great place to explore,
full of antique shops and history. It was built on
the bank of the River Avon in 914 by Ethelfleda, sister
of Edward the Elder, to defend against the rampaging
Danes. I think we need to bring back some of these
old names – Ethelfleda! Warwick is situated
on a small hill, which controlled not only the river
valley but also the river crossing on the road to
London and the roads to Stratford, Coventry and the
salt way to Droitwich.
What then is a 'salt way'?
Precisely that! In pre-refrigeration days, salt was
like gold dust. It not only preserved food, it also
livened up the diets before the days of the spice
trade from the Far East. In Droitwich, salt occurred
naturally, emerging through the salt springs. The
salt would be bundled up and carried by packhorse
to various parts of the country, notably the monasteries
of the south and southwest. Droitwich grew rich on
the income derived from the salt trade, and even takes
its name from the product. Camden's Britannia published
in 1607 included the explanation 'wiccj = salt pittes',
from which we derive the '-wich' part of Droitwich.
There is evidence that entrepreneurs were producing
salt at Droitwich for the Romans, and their descendents
continued to do so right up until the end of the last
century.
The medieval center of
Warwick was prevented from expansion by the open spaces
that surround it: the Common and Racecourse; the grounds
of the Priory; St Nicholas Meadow; the River Avon;
and later, Warwick Castle. And it is Warwick Castle
that most of the tourists come to see, being one of
the most dramatic and complete medieval castles in
the country, but horribly commercialized by Madame
Tussaud's and over-run by tourists in the summer season.
We have 'done' Warwick Castle, and have no desire
to go back. It did make us appreciate the unspoilt
castles that may seem like less, but are in fact more,
such as the wonderful, personal Carlisle Castle.
Warwick Castle was built
up and fortified by William the Conqueror, whose name
has been mentioned already in this book. Truth be
told, he was one of England's strongest and most capable
monarchs. Think about it: In a country that had always
been made up of divided factions scattered all over
a country with no road infrastructure, William was
able to commission and execute a project as huge and
complex as the Domesday Book in a little over eight
months. The Domesday Book was the first tax document,
itemizing county-by-county all the assets to which
the King would have access for tax purposes. Because
there was no formal (or informal) course for appeal
against what was recorded, the book was termed 'Dooms
Day' or Domesday as it became known. This formal recording
of collection sources taxes was not only the first
time such a task had been undertaken, it was ahead
of the rest of the world by several centuries.
Capability Brown did the
garden landscaping at Warwick Castle. Lancelot Brown
is better know by his nickname 'Capability', derived
from his habit of saying, when looking at the grounds
surrounding a mansion, that they had 'capabilities
of improvement', which I suppose is an 18th Century
euphemism for flooding everything in sight. He was
the outstanding landscape gardener of his time, and
quite a bit of time either side of his time too. It
may be more than coincidence that he was originally
a gardener, unlike most of the others.
He had very humble beginnings,
starting out by organizing the kitchen garden at Kirkharle
in Northumberland. He moved on to become the head
gardener at Stowe, where he implemented much of the
work planned out by William Kent, adding his own signature
to each piece of work. He left Stowe to become an
independent contractor in 1750, designing gardens
for the well-to-do that had been born with a silver
spoon, but without a green thumb. Before long, having
one's gardens bulldozed and rebuilt by Capability
Brown was the height of fashion, and he found himself
in high demand.
Capability's created
lake at Blenheim Palace is considered his masterpiece.
Browns greatest skill was probably his management
of water, and he created many lakes that look natural
today but actually involved considerable amounts of
flooding, including on one famous occasion, obliterating
an entire village.
