Part 1: London, Oxford, Stratford, Coventry, Wedgwood, Bakewell, York, and Edinburgh August 23-27

S. Kathleen Kitao and Kenji Kitao
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Table of Contents

Day 1--August 23, 1995 (London)
Day 2--August 24 (London)
Day 3--August 25 (London-->Oxford-->Stratford-->Coventry)

Day 4--August 26 (Wedgwood, Bakewell)
Day 5--August 27 (York-->Edinburgh)
Day 6--August 28 (Edinburgh)

Day 7--August 29 (Edinburgh-->St. Andrews-->Grantown)
Day 8--August 30 (Skye Excursion)
Day 9--August 31 (Glencoe-->Loch Lommand-->Glasgow)

Day 10--September 1 (Lake District-->Liverpool)
Day 11--September 2 (Chester)
Day 12--September 3 (Llangollan-->Caernarfon-->Dublin)

Day 13--September 4 (Dublin)
Day 14--September 5 (Knock-->Sligo)
Day 15--September 6 (Donegal)

Day 16--September 7 (Kylemore Abbey-->Limerick)
Day 17--September 8 (Cliffs of Moher-->Galway)
Day 18--September 9 (Adare-->Killarney-->Waterville)

Day 19--September 10 (Blarney-->Tramore)
Day 20--September 11 (Tramore-->Swansea)
Day 21--September 12 (Wye Valley)

Day 22--September 13 (Bath-->Glastonbury-->Barnstaple)
Day 23--September 14 (Clovelly-->Plymouth)
Day 24--September 15 (Cornwall)

Day 25--September 16 (Stonehenge-->Winchester-->London)
Day 26--September 17 (London Area)

#Day 1--August 23, 1995 (London)

We started our trip in London. We arrived there in the early afternoon and after checking into our hotel went to Westminster Abbey.

There was a special exhibition about the restoration of the abbey, which is going on now. We were able to see various exhibits about what restorers do, and even go up on scaffolding to the roof to see some of the restorers working on the stonework near the roof of the abbey. We also got a good view of the Palace of Westminster from there. (The Palace of Westminster is where the Parliament meets.)

While we were at the abbey, we also got to see the chapter house, the Pyx Chamber, and the museum underneath the abbey. The chapter house is an eight-sided room with stained glass, murals, and tile floors. It dates back to the 13th century and is amazingly well preserved. This is a place where monks sat daily to listen to the reading of a chapter from a book. For a time, the House of Commons met there--but they were moved when the monks complained that all the stomping was damaging their beautiful floor tiles.

The Pyx Chamber was a room where samples of coins were sent to make sure that they had sufficient weight of precious metals. There were huge cabinets that the coins were kept in. According to the guide, there was once a connecting door to the abbey. However, there was a theft that could only have taken place with the help of one or more monks, so that door was sealed off. Now there is a doorway with two doors, each about three or four inches thick, which each have three locks. To open the door, six keys are necessary, and each one is held by a different person. Even though coins are no longer kept here, they still use the six keys to open the six locks.

The museum has a displays of ecclestical silver and also effigies of former kings and queens of England. These effigies were used in the funeral procession when the king or queen died.

We also saw the library. This was good timing, since the library is not open to the public very often. The library has a large collection of very old books. Some of them were beautifully illuminated. One of the librarians explained that at one time books were so valuable that they were chained to the walls of libraries, and on some of the books we could see the metal rings that were used to attach the chain to the book. There was also a globe that was about 300 years old. I noticed that California was depicted as an island--this was before it was realized that California is part of mainland North America.

I attended a service at the abbey in the later afternoon. It is very "high church"--a very formal service.

One day a week, on Wednesday, the abbey is open in the evening. We went in and saw the many memorials and graves. This is the only time that photography is allowed in the abbey, so people who like to take pictures often take advantage of this opportunity to get pictures of the fascinating interior of the abbey. One of the graves we saw was Geoffrey Chaucer's, which is appropriate, since we are staying in Canterbury. (He was buried there because of his association with the abbey, not because he was a literary figure. It was not until later that they started putting monuments and graves of famous literary figures there.) Among the many more famous people who are buried in the abbey are Queen Elizabeth I and her sister, Mary I (Bloody Mary). In life, they were enemies in some ways, and their religious views conflicted, but they are buried together as a symbol of religious reconciliation.

Kenji's Corner

I went to the cabinet war room where Churchill made all his decisions during World War II. It is located in the basement of a building near Westminster. In this room, Churchill and his advisors collected the most recent information about battles all over Europe, analyzed it, and gave orders to the whole military.

Surprisingly, they had one telephone which connected with Washington directly. Churchill could talk with Roosevelt personally on that phone.

Keeping a large church is very expensive. Westminster Abbey had printed explanations of how much money is spent for what annually. Now they are charging 4 pounds for admission during the daytime, and 2 pounds on Wednesday evenings. If my memory is correct, Wednesday evening used to be free.

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#Day 2--August 24 (London)

Today was "Stately Home Day." Since we are able to visit English Heritage sites for free, we decided to visit three stately homes managed by English Heritage around London, plus another one which is nearby.

The first home we visited was called Marble Hill. It was built in the 1700s by a woman named Henrietta Howard. She was for a time the mistress of King George II, and when she retired from court life, he gave her a great deal of money, part of which she used to build this home on the Thames. She was quite an interesting and intelligent woman, and she was friends with a number of famous people of her day, including Alexander Pope. Even today, the home is in a lovely setting, in a park-like garden with a sweeping view down to the Thames. (Many of the great palaces and homes of this area were located near the Thames, since traveling by river was for centuries the only practical way to travel.)

The second house we had planned to visit was called Syon House. It was the home of the Dukes of Northumberland, and it is supposed to be a fabulous house, but unfortunately it was closed.

Finally we went to Chiswick House. This one was owned by Lord Burlington, who was known as a great patron of the arts in the 18th century. He traveled in Italy as a young man where he both became interested in art and came to admire Italian architecture. His house, which he helped design, is considered one of the great examples of Paladin architecture in Britain. (Palladio was an Italian architect of the 18th century.) It is a lovely home, with a beautiful double staircase in front, columns in front of the second floor, and a dome. Before we went through the house, an audio-visual presentation presented Lord Burlington and the story of his life, which was helpful as we went through the house.

The house is set in a lovely garden. During the time the house was built, the English were going into a changeover from formal gardens to gardens that imitated nature more closely.

Finally, we went to Kenwood House. It is located in the northern part of London. This house, which was built in 1616, but remodeled by Robert Adam in the 1700s, is simple and symmetrical from the outside and looks Georgian. A lawn sweeps back from the house to a pond, and there are woods behind the pond. The house is particularly well known for its art collection, which includes works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Gainsborough, among many other important works by English and Dutch masters.

Kenji's Corner

I liked Chiswick House best. One of the reasons was very simple. They had a video at the beginning of the tour of the house, so we had background knowledge about the house. Then we used a walkman and followed the taped guide. The tape was well made, and we felt like people were still living there when we visited.

I liked Kenwood House least, because there were many paintings which I did not understand. They had nice rooms and furniture. However, I did not have either a live guide or a taped one. I did not get much out of it. This gives some ideas for better teaching, doesn't it?

It is easy for us to do sightseeing in London. All we have to do is to buy a travel card. We can use British Rail, tubes (subways), and buses within the specified zones. The most expensive travel card is only 3.80 pounds a day, which covers a large area, including Hampton Court and Heathrow Airport. They even have long-term travel cards, which can be used for several days, a week or a month.

Another advantage of a travel card is that you can buy it with your credit card. Even right after you arrive in London and do not have British money, there is no problem getting it at any station.

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Day 3--August 25
(London-->Oxford-->Stratford-->Coventry)

This was the first day of our Trafalgar tour. We left London early in the morning. Our first stop was Oxford.

This city is, of course, most famous for the university, but it is different from US or Japanese university campuses. You can't go to one place and say, "This is Oxford University." The colleges are individual. Oxford developed in the 12th century from the students who went to the city to study in an Augustinian abbey. Colleges developed in the 13th century to allow the administration to keep a closer eye on students. Today, there are 36 colleges and about 13,000 students.

We only had time to go to one college, so we decided to go to Christ Church. It is a very beautiful college with lovely gardens. Among its well known students are Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland), the poet W.H. Auden, and William Penn, who founded the American state of Pennsylvania. It is particularly famous for its cathedral (the cathedral of the city of Oxford and the smallest cathedral in England). We also saw the treasury, where some valuable silver plates are kept. (It would have been more impressive if it had not been in the same room as the gift shop.) Finally, we visited the Hall, where the students eat. It was a large and impressive room with a famous hammerbeam roof.

Our next stop was Stratford, which was, of course, the home of William Shakespeare. He was born there in 1564 and lived there until he went to London to pursue a career as a playwright, actor and producer of plays. He returned to Stratford in 1610 to retire, and lived there until his death in 1616. He is buried in the church in Stratford, with a plaque over his grave asking that his bones not be moved. There are five buildings associated with Shakespeare in and around Stratford--his birthplace (which has been a tourist attraction for three centuries), Nash's House (where his granddaughter lived, next to the site of the house in which he retired), Hall's Croft (where his daughter lived), Anne Hathaway's cottage (his wife's family home, which is a beautiful thatched cottage with a fantastic garden), and Mary Arden's House (his mother's family home). At the Birthplace, there is a fine museum of Shakespeare's family, his life and his work.

Finally we went to Coventry. It is probably most famous for its two cathedrals--one bombed out cathedral and one new one, both called St. Michael's. The bombed out one, surprisingly, has a stark beauty about it, with only the outer walls and steeple standing. It was built in the 14th century but bombed by the Germans in World War II. Ironically, at the time, the Allies had managed to break the Germans' codes and knew that a bombing of Coventry was planned, but they knew that if they did anything to stop the Germans, the Germans would know that the Allies had broken the code. Since it was to the advantage of the Allies to have the Germans believe that their codes were secure, the Allies did nothing, and Coventry suffered a terrible bombing. There are memorials among the ruins of the old cathedral. In contrast the new cathedral is modernistic and not bad, but I didn't care much for it.

Kenji's Corner

Oxford certainly has many beautiful colleges and buildings. Many buildings are worth visiting. However, since many colleges charge 2-3 pounds for admission, it would be very expensive to visit many colleges, like visiting many temples in Kyoto. If we could study or teach in such nice buildings, we would feel that we could do a much better job.

When we were about to leave Oxford, we found that one young Japanese man had not returned to the tour bus. We waited for him for one hour on the bus. There were about forty tourists from Canada, US, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. However, no one seriously complained about him, though they did tease him for several days afterward. Amazing!

Stratford is a nice place. One problem here is that things are scattered, and it is very difficult to see many places within a short time, so many people like us end up only seeing the birthplace of Shakespeare and the museum which is attached to it. Kathi has visited there three times now.

One problem of Trafalgar Tours is that they use hotels where there are no tourist attractions. We stayed in the suburbs of Birmingham. However, many people on our bus seemed to particularly enjoy drinking and eating. Many people were older, retired people. However, they had surprising appetites. We usually had a three course dinner at a hotel. The three courses are a starter, such as soup, salad, fruit, etc., a main dish, such as beef, fish, lamb, chicken or a vegetarian dish, and a dessert, such as ice-cream, pastry, or fruit. If you ate it in a nice restaurant, it would probably cost 15 pounds.

We usually arrived in a hotel before five. We had dinner from seven to eight-thirty or so. We woke up between six and seven. We ate a big English breakfast for 45 minutes or so. You will see that we spent much time at the hotel. Most of the hotels were clean and nice.

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Day 4--August 26 (Wedgwood, Bakewell)

In the morning, we stopped at the Wedgwood factory, where we saw a film about the history of Wedgwood china and how it is made and watched some workers. There were several processes we were able to watch, including throwing clay pots on a wheel (it is fascinating to watch the clay form as if by magic beneath the potter's hands), painting china, and putting figures on the clay pots. This last process is also quite interesting. One famous type of Wedgwood pottery is based on the Greek pottery that shows silhouettes around the pottery. The pots and the figures are poured separately first, and then the potter wets the pot slightly and places the figures carefully in place. It is a painstaking job.

In the afternoon, we stopped in Bakewell. It is a small, lovely town. There is a beautiful bridge over the river at Bakewell and a church that dates back to Saxon times. It is most famous, however, for "Bakewell pudding." Bakewell pudding not actually pudding but a kind of tart. It actually originated from a mistake, when an inexperienced assistant cook accidentally put jam on top of the tart instead of inside it. The mistake ended up tasting good, and it has become a tradition. Bakewell pudding is now sold all over Britain, but according to those in Bakewell, only that sold in Bakewell is really the real thing. They are delicious but very rich--it's difficult to eat more than a few bites.

Kenji's Corner

One advantage of the bus tour is that we could visit any place even if it is inconveniently located. Another advantage is that we can enjoy scenic drives without waiting for a long time for a bus. Crossing through hills or mountains was very beautiful.

Since Wedgwood is so famous, many people come to see how their china is made. They have their own museum and show a video and actual demonstrations of making china. They charge admission and of course they sell their products in a shop as well as souvenir books, etc.

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Day 5--August 27 (York-->Edinburgh)

The highlight today was a stop in York, one of the most interesting old cities in Britain. York has seen more of British history than almost any city in the country. It is more than 2000 years old, the "capital of the north." The Romans made it one of their principal cities, and the Saxons made it a center of Christianity and learning. The next invaders, the Vikings, called in Yorvik, from when its present-day name comes. It was the seat of the House of York, which vied with the House of Lancaster for the throne of England and eventually lost. Its most controversial former inhabitant was King Richard III, who, some people believe, killed his brother's sons in order to become king of England. (There apparently isn't much historical evidence that he did, and there is a display in a museum that presents both sides.)

Much of York's city wall, built in the 13th century, still exists, and we saw part of it.

We saw York Minster, the cathedral at York, which was built between 1220 and 1480 and is the largest medieval cathedral in all Europe. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday morning, we were not able to see the inside due to the service, but from the outside it is very beautiful and impressive. I also saw the Shambles, an old shopping street. These are medieval buildings, many of which are built with each storey hanging a little over the one below it, so that the buildings seem to lean drunkenly toward each other across the narrow street.

Next, I visited the Yorvik Viking Center, which is museum about the Viking times in York. Visitors ride a car which takes them through a village reconstructed based on some archaeological digs of the Viking era. We get a chance to see how people lived and worked in that time (and even what it smelled like--not too pleasant!). After the ride, we got to see some of the actual archaeological digs and some reconstructions of the labs where the results of the digs were analyzed, so that we learned how archaeologists study what they find.

Finally, I went to the Yorkshire Museum, which had many interesting Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, and medieval displays. It is located in the Museum Gardens, which also has a Roman tower and a ruined abbey.

York is an unusual city, and I hope to visit it again someday. I would still like to see the interior of the Minster and some of the other museums, including the Castle Museum, a museum of daily life which is supposed to be one of the best museums in Britain.

We stopped to see a small section of Hadrian's Wall. Hadrian was an emperor of Rome, and he built a wall across the border between England and Scotland (before either of those countries really existed as countries) because he gave up on ever being able to pacify the Picts, the early people of Scotland. Originally it was 14-15 feet tall. The part we saw today, anyway, was little more than a pile of rocks less than two feet high.

This time of year, the heather of the Yorkshire moors are in bloom, and we could see oceans of it from the window. It was impressive, and, it seemed to me, thicker and more common in Yorkshire than in Scotland, which is more associated with it. Many of the fields seem to be covered by a sea of purple.

We had a very brief stop near the border between Scotland and England at Jedburough Abbey, a ruined abbey founded by the Scottish King David I. It is a magnificent ruin.

We also stopped at a woolen outlet, where we looked around a little. Scotland produces a lot of wool, and its just thick with stores that sell woolen goods.

In the evening, we went to a Scottish Evening. There was Scottish music and dancing and traditional Scottish food. I found that I really like Scottish music. It tends to be rather sad and mournful, though some of it is fun. There was a bagpipe player (of course; this is Scotland after all) and a fiddler, who played a beautiful lament. The first dish we were served was haggis. There is a poem by Robert Burns which is an address to the haggis, and the moderator recited that poem and then served the haggis. Haggis is meat and grain cooked in a sheep's stomach, and as long as you don't think too much about what is in it, its actually delicious. Anyway, we had an enjoyable time.

Kenji's Corner

One disadvantage of organized tours such as ours is that we cannot stay longer anywhere or we just have to follow their schedule.

York is a fantastic place to visit. As a matter of fact, I visited there for an international conference last spring, and I spent more than three days there sightseeing in York itself and the area. It is possible to spend even three days seeing just the things in town. However, we had only two hours there. We have to go back there sometime.

I was expecting to see a long wall when we went to see Hadrian's Wall. However, we just saw ruins of less than 100 feet. If the guide had not explained what it was, we would not have known that was it was Hadrian's Wall.

The singing and music were wonderful at the Scottish Evening. The food was very good, too. Many people enjoyed the unlimited wine and beer.

Scotland is a part of the UK, and it occupies about two-fifths of the island. However, its population is only about five million, less than ten percent of the population of the UK. Scotland was not conquered by England, but it was united peacefully with England. The native people of Scotland and Ireland were Celts, and there is much similarity between Ireland and Scotland even today. The Scots are very independent in a sense, and they have their own money, which can also be used in other parts of the UK.

The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh. Scotland is really a beautiful place with an interesting culture. Kathi will write more about Scotland in Part 2.

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Day 6--August 28 (Edinburgh)

This was our day in Edinburgh, one of the most beautiful old cities in Britain. We started with a city tour to get an overview of the city and then went around on our own. Edinburgh is divided between the "old city," located up on a ridge between the castle and the Palace of Hollyroodhouse and the new city, in the valley below. The new city is largely Georgian, and it is well laid out with some beautiful architecture and parks. There is a large monument to Sir Walter Scott in one of the parks.

First we visited St. Giles Cathedral, which was built in the 15th century. It played an important role in the struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism in Scotland. John Knox, an influential Protestant reformer, was a minister there.

We also visited the castle. It is a castle that looks like a castle should look. Located on top of an extinct volcano, it is dark and imposing. Though archaeological research documents a settlement here as long ago as 850 BC, the first historical references date to the 6th century, when a fortress was rebuilt as protection against the Picts, the early inhabitants of Scotland. The oldest part of the present castle dates from the 12th century, a simple chapel built by David I in memory of his mother. The castle has been rebuilt and modified numerous times over the centuries, changing from primarily a royal residence to primarily a military fortress. (Hollyroodhouse, which we visited later, became the primary royal residence in Edinburgh.)

In the castle, we saw St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest part of the castle, and the smallest chapel I've ever seen. It does not seat more than about 10 people. We also saw the "honours" (crown jewels) of Scotland; the beautiful Great Hall; and the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son who would become James VI of Scotland and James I of England, uniting the courts of the two countries and paving the way for their eventual union. We also saw Mons Meg, a giant siege gun from the Middle Ages. Also, from the castle, we could see beautiful views of Edinburgh.

There is a long-standing custom that a cannon is fired from the castle at 1:00 every day. Some people seem to think its strange that the gun is fired at 1:00, not 12:00, but Scots say that the reason is that then they only have to use one round of ammunition, not 12!

After the Castle, we took a cab to The Palace of Hollyroodhouse, where we saw the palace. This palace was built in the early 1500s and is particularly associated with Mary Queen of Scots, who lived there for 16 years, and we saw some of the rooms where she lived and a collection of articles associated with her. Since Mary's son James left, it has never been a permanent royal residence. We also saw the ruins of Hollyrood Abbey, which was built about 400 years before the palace. There is not much left but the walls and the graves of some people buried in the floors.

Walking down from the church, we saw Cannongate Kirk, a small church which was built in 1688. Adam Smith is buried in the churchyard there, and I had my picture taken with his tombstone.

We also stopped at the People's Museum, a small and interesting museum about how people have lived in different periods of history in Edinburgh. It is interesting in that it is an effort to show the lives of ordinary people, not royalty or prime ministers.

Our last stop was at John Knox's House. It is a beautiful old house from the 15th century, and there are exhibits there about Knox's life and work.

In the evening, we went with some people from the tour to a pub where we had dinner. The pub was located on the Firth of Forth. (A firth is the wide place where a large river empties into the sea.) From the windows of the pub, we could watch the sailboats on the firth and see the beautiful bridges, particularly the old railroad bridge built in the late 1800s.

Kenji's Corner

Edinburgh is the most famous city in Scotland and the second largest, though it only has half a million people. It is one of the most livable cities in Britain. It is really a beautiful city. The Royal Mile from the Castle to the Palace is the best known part of the city, and all tourists visit there.

One of my strongest impressions of Scotland is of its stones. Scots use dark gray stones for many buildings, and those building look strong and sturdy, but in a sense they are dark.

Scotland had some conflicts between Catholic and Protestants, as did England. Mary Queen of Scots was the last Catholic monarch of Scotland, and her son James VI was taken away from her and raised as a Protestant. That is why he was acceptable as the king of England and became James I of England. This was the unification of crowns of Scotland and England.

In order to understand British history, or even Britain, you need to understand the monarchs. We will explain something about them in the future.

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Day 7--August 29 (Edinburgh-->St. Andrews-->Grantown)

Today was mostly a scenic day. We left Edinburgh and drove over the bridge over the Firth of Forth and up into the Highlands. The day was a little misty, but it seems like often in the Highlands, that just enhances the beauty, because it makes the colors more intense.

We stopped at St. Andrew's, which is of course well known for its golf course. Fortunately, we weren't hoping to play golf there, because it would have cost 50 pounds, and we would have had to make reservations three months in advance. There was a golf museum there, though, which was very interesting. Apparently in the Middle Ages, there were several games that involved hitting a ball with a stick, but golf, which developed in Scotland was the one that survived. It was popular with royalty as well as ordinary people. At one point in the 1400s, the king had to forbid its play, because it was interfering with the training of the military, that is, the soldiers were more interested in practicing golf than archery! Mary Queen of Scots is known to have liked the game and was criticized for playing too soon after the death of her second husband.

We stayed in a small town called Grantown, which was not particularly memorable. In the late afternoon, when we arrived at the hotel, there was already a fire (peat, of course) in the fireplace--and it's not even the end of August. While it wasn't really that cold, it was nice to sit in front of the fire for a while and read the paper.

We went for a walk and saw a bakery that had scones, so we stopped and bought a couple. (The clerk threw in a couple more, since it was late afternoon and he was about to close.) Scones are traditional in Britain, especially in Scotland, and they were very good. They are like slightly sweet biscuits (American use of the word), sometimes with little bits of fruit in them.

In the evening, there was a country music singer. She sang both country music and traditional Scottish songs, and it was possible to see the relationship between them. (American country music originated from the music of the Scottish and Irish settlers in the southeastern U.S.)

Kenji's Corner

The golf museum was kind of interesting. They had quizzes on the computers. We could choose the types of questions we wanted and answer them. The computers gave the correct answers and explanations. Except for a couple of famous courses, playing golf is not very expensive there.

St. Andrews also has a famous university. It is as good as Oxford and Cambridge Universities. I think Prof. Kitagaki studied there.

Scotland has only five million people, but many people of Scottish extraction live all over the world. (According to one estimate, there are more than 25 million people of Scottish descent outside of Scotland.) They also exported their culture, and, for one thing, their songs are sung all over the world.

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Day 8--August 30 (Skye Excursion)

Today we went on an excursion from Grantown to the Isle of Skye. Again, the Highland scenery was exceptionally beautiful. The valleys are richly green, and the mountains are rocky.

Some of the areas we were traveling through were peat bogs. When vegetation accumulates over a long period of time, that is, several hundred years, it eventually forms peat. (After several thousand more years, it would form coal; after many, many thousand more years, and under pressure, it would eventually form diamonds.) Peat is a traditional form of fuel in this area. People would gather it and burn it in their fireplaces. The bus driver stopped and cut a piece and passed it around. It is rather like densely compacted dirt.

On the way to Skye, we stopped at Cullendon. Cullendon was the site of the last battle in which the Jacobites were decisively defeated. The English troops not only defeated the Highlanders in battle but did very cruel things to the defeated soldiers. There is a memorial there, a diagram showing the position of the different sides on the battlefield, and stone markers for the positions of the members of each of the Scottish clans.

We took the ferry to Skye, and island off the coast of Scotland. (A bridge has been built but is not quite finished. There is a lot of opposition to it locally, though, both for its possible effects on the environment and its cost.) Skye is famous for its connection with Bonnie Prince Charlie, who, as a grandson of James II, claimed the throne of Britain. (His supporters are called Jacobites.) Britain, however, wanted a Protestant king (and there was some question about whether the prince's father was really the son of James II). He raised a rebellion, mainly from Highlanders, who weren't Catholic but didn't much like the government of Britain, but they were defeated at Cullendon in 1746, and Bonnie Prince Charlie, as the song "The Skye Boat Song" says, fled "over the sea to Skye."

The coastline of Skye is beautiful, and we drove along a piece of it to the Skye Croft Museum, which is a traditionally furnished croft house. (Crofts were small farms.)

Kenji's Corner

Scotland is very, very beautiful in terms of scenery. The Highlands are particularly beautiful. It thought it was much more beautiful than England.

I am always amazed that wherever I go, some people are living there. In a large valley, where almost nothing else exists, we find a house. I wonder how people live in such an isolated place.

Scotland's tourist season is until the end of September. Almost all tourist places, including gift shops, will be closed around that time.

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Day 9--August 31 (Glencoe-->Loch Lommand-->Glasgow)

Today we stopped briefly at Glencoe. This is the place where the members of the Campbell Clan, guests of the McDonalds, murdered almost all the members of the McDonald Clan. It's a rather complicated story, but essentially, some in the English government felt that the McDonalds weren't loyal enough to the British crown, and to make an example of them, they ordered the Campbells to murder all the members of the clan. The Campbells were, at the time, honored guests of the McDonalds in Glencoe, so it was even more of a betrayal. There is no trace of any of this in the valley of Glencoe where it took place, but its still a mysteriously melancholy place, especially on days like when we saw it, with the mist pouring over the rugged mountains that tower over the valley.

Later, we took a cruise on Loch Lommand, which is said to be the most beautiful lake in Britain. I know of it from the famous song "Loch Lommand," which is a very sad song about a man about to be executed, and which ends "But I and my true love shall never meet again on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lommand." Loch Lommand is a long lake, almost 24 miles long, and fairly narrow. It has rugged hills rising from both sides. The cruise was pleasant and enjoyable. We saw a cave where, legend has it, Rob Roy used to hide out. (He was another Scottish rebel in the 1700s. The English chased him for years but never could catch him.) Beside the entrance to the cave, someone painted the word "cave" with an arrow to the entrance.

We drove through Glasgow on the way to our hotel, and we saw some of the lovely Victorian sandstone buildings there. George's Square is particularly impressive, with the city chambers on one side and several statues of famous Scots, including Sir Walter Scott (of course), Robert Burns, and James Watt. There were also statues of Queen Victoria as a young woman and Prince Albert. (The statues were made in honor of her first visit to Glasgow. She visited the city for about two hours one time, and even though the visit was short, it was the first royal visit for 200 years so Glasweglians were pretty impressed.)

Kenji's Corner

McDonald and Macintosh are two of many famous Scottish clans. Clans are made of networks of relatives, people who are connected through kinship. There were many clans, and they had their own patterns of tartan that they wore. Thus, if you know them, you can tell which clan it is whenever you see a tartan.

Glasgow looked an interesting city, but we did not stop there. It was a pity.

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Day 10--September 1 (Lake District-->Liverpool)

Today we drove through the Lake District, a very scenic part of England, and stopped at Dove Cottage, a house where the poet William Wordsworth lived for several years. It was originally an inn built about 400 years ago. When Wordsworth was visiting the Lake District once he saw it and decided to buy it. He lived there with his sister, and when he was married, his wife came to live there. It is considered that he wrote some of his best poems during his time there. A great deal is known about his time there, because his sister Dorothy kept detailed diaries, which have since been published (and which, in fact, are still in print). The two of them, and later his wife and other houseguests, often hiked in the Lake District, and this inspired many of his poems.

Before leaving the Lake District, we drove by Lake Windermere, the largest lake in the Lake District and one of the best known.

Between the Lake District and Liverpool, we drove by Lancaster University, where we will be visiting scholars from the fall.

When we arrived in Liverpool, we went on a city tour. Of course, since Liverpool is associated with the Beatles, we went by a number of Beatle-related sites, including Penny Lane and the Cavern Club, where the Beatles first became popular. We also went by the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Roman Catholic cathedral, which is modernistic and looks like a funnel. We stopped at the Anglican Cathedral, which was built between 1902 and 1960 in a neo-Gothic style. It is a huge place. The designer, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, asked specifically to be buried there (it was truly his life's work, since he won the design contest for the cathedral when he was in his 20s and died just before it was completed in 1960) and he got special permission from the Roman Catholic Church. However, after he was buried, it was decided to shorten the nave, and he ended up buried under the street in front of the church! Poor man. We ended up having a drink in the Philharmonic Pub, a favorite of John Lennon's. It is elegantly decorated, perhaps similar to the luxury ships that sail from Liverpool.

The hotel where we stayed in Liverpool was the Adelphi Britannic, which according to my guidebook is the place to stay in Liverpool. Our room was very large, with a small sitting room and even a fireplace. The hotel was built back in 1912, when wealthy passengers on the luxurious ships would stay there for a night before or after the Atlantic crossing. Theodore Roosevelt was among the famous guests who stayed there. At the time, it was considered one of the most luxurious hotels in the world. Even today, though it has frayed a bit around the edges, it is possible to see how elegant it once was.

Kenji's Corner

It was unfortunate that we did not see much in the Lake District. A big bus cannot drive through narrow roads, and we drove on a main highway, from which we could not see much. We saw only a couple of lakes, though there are more than one hundred lakes.

The Lake District is very beautiful and certainly the greatest attraction for people in Lancaster. We will have many chances to visit it while we are in Lancaster. The best way to see it is by walking. The second best way is driving in a small car through narrow roads except in July and August, when there are too many people.

I thought that the city tour in Liverpool was the best one we had on our tour. (We had tours of Edinburgh and Dublin.) One reason it was good was that we had a variety of things to do in a short time. We saw parts of the city from the bus. We visited a cathedral, and a beautiful pub where we had a drink. We heard about the Beatles. Also, we heard things which we knew a little about. This gives some ideas for better instruction.

Continue.