Canterbury

Next day we headed off to Canterbury via Tunbridge Wells. We hadn’t really explored this part of the country much and when we found we had another night over this way before meeting up with Mike and Barbara for our next holiday we decided to do a bit more sight- seeing rather than returning to Bristol. Tunbridge Wells is quite a quaint place and known for its Pantiles (clay bricks) where streets were once paved with bricks and houses are still clad with them. The city was put on the map in the 17th century with the discovery of a spring - the well to do folk in England really liked spa water thinking it was good for their health - not sure if anyone has ever proved it one way or the other. The pantiles was a walkway built in the 18th century around this spa - if you were part of the gentry you could walk along the top and if you weren't you were allowed to enjoy the lower walks - we did both on a very cold and wintry Sunday afternoon. It was here while in the Pantile carpark that Rebecca rang to say she and Nylan are engaged.
Then onto to Canterbury. We found a nice little French bistro in the centre of the town to eat a baguette and talked to the Hungarian waitress and Maltese waiter (yes I know I did say French). The Maltese waiter has finished studying modern art and has decided to stay over in England so we talked a bit about home sickness and how emotions go up and down, how easy and hard it was to make the decision to stay for longer and how a holiday back home helps. We then talked about our trip to Malta and the buses and after asking where we stayed discovered that we had walked up the hill past his house one day. He said that everytime he went over to Malta he is reminded how poor the country is and he is right – it appears poorer than Cyprus and people seem to have to work hard for their money. In the early evening we wandered along the path that ran alongside the river and through the little streets for a while (we bought some sweets from the old little sweet shop) and then it was time for Peter Pan. We had been told by some friends expert in the English Pantomime (they have seen far more than us) that the the panto we saw last year (Cinderella) was not a traditional panto and so we were waiting to see a more traditional one so we could compare. Peter Pan, in a large 'big top' had a number of well known people in it (but not to us) and it was all good fun. Sometimes the adults laughed when the kids didn't and sometimes we laughed when no one else did. There are a few things which seem typical of a panto like the actor saying "no he’s not" and the audience saying "yes he is" and so on it goes, and a ghost scene where ghosts dance behind and the audience yells to the actor "it’s behind you" and then the ghost runs off before the actor turns around. Anyway, as you can see Caramello got a great view of his first pantomime and we are beginning to recognise the signs of a 'traditional' pantomime.

Not only had Peter Pan come to Canterbury that night, but Jack Frost also visited as we slept and we woke to a sunny but very chilly morning. We had an early breakfast, left our bags in the hotel and went off to see more Canterbury sights - aiming first of all for the Cathedral. The Cathedral was similar to many others we had seen but was unique in that it was full of interesting statues and stories of previous archbishops and choirists and set in the gardens of a ruin. There is a story here about Henry II which helps us to put a few more pieces into our historical jigsaw puzzle. Henry had 3 sons, one was Bad King John of Robin Hood fame, one was Geoffrey whom I don't know much about probably cos he died quite young but he may have been the 'not disapppointing' son if he had lived and the third Richard (who went to war against his father in the late 1100's and married his princess in Cyprus once she had been freed from the Cypriots after the boat she was on sunk). Henry appointed a friend Thomas Becket to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas was a strong believer in the church and was exiled in 1164 although continued to preach sermons which rather upset Henry. Henry sent his armies to capture Becket but instead they killed him and like many a good martyred church man Becket became a saint overnight and as a consequence miraculous things happened when people visited the Cathedral. Henry knew that he couldn't stand against the church and so he walked barefoot into Canterbury allowing 70 monks to flog him along the way and spent a night prostrate praying at Beckets tomb. The next day Henry's army defeated William II of Scotland - and the story goes that both Thomas and God had forgiven Henry. There is a candle in the middle of the church sitting alone on the floor where Thomas's tomb laid until another Henry came along a few centuries later and destroyed it.  Now the Cathedral employs over 800 people to maintain the buildings and grounds, run the libraries,shops and archives, hold services (over 2000 a year) etc and to look after all the pilgrims that continue to come to the building since Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered. Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is based on these pilgrims. The tales are about a group of 30 pilgrims as they travel to Canterbury. They come from all societies and tell stories to each other to entertain each other as they travel to Canterbury. So far so good. Chaucer thought that each pilgrim should tell four tales - two on the way there and two on the way back to their homes. That makes 120 stories in all and not surprisingly he didn't quite have the time to finish them. At the time of writing there was no such thing as a printing press so the stories were handed down from generation to generation in several handwritten manuscripts. Now I haven't read any of Chaucer works and thought that it might be a good idea to attempt to do so. But I've had second thoughts as they were written sometime around the late 1300's and the English language has changed somewhat since then - not going to be relaxing bedtime reading for me...

• And smale foules maken melodie, That slepen alle night with open eye, So priketh hem nature in hir corages; Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages.Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 9.
• He was a veray parfit gentil knight. Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 72.
• Ful wel she sange the service devine, Entuned in hire nose ful swetely; And Frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisly, After the scole of Stratford atte bowe, For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe. Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 122.
• And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche. Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 310.
• Nowher so besy a man as he ther n’ as, And yet he semed besier than he was.Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 323.
• That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears. Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 1524.

There were some other lovely stories in the Cathedral like the one about Alfred Deller - who was a counter tenor "a singer of unique quality sometimes lay clerk of this cathedral who by his art and singularity of voice translated the male alto from the relative confines of the choir stall to the forefront of the world state". I could be here all day looking at the stories of other peoples lives but we wandered off to spend some time in the Cathedral grounds.  The Cathedral appears to be in the grounds of an old ruin and alongside a school and so we could wander around the gardens and the old walls as well as enjoy the inside of the cathedral and the crypt. While in the crypt a lady kindly asked Harry to take off his hat (it wasn’t particularly warm inside or out and so we hadn’t thought about it and what with Harry being bought up in a Jewish family the customs are the other way around).  I began to wonder about the logic behind woman and men covering their heads and why is it different in different religions. So, onto Google to find I am not the first person to ask the question ... and also to find that there are a lot of biblical references that supported either the man or the woman wearing a hat.  But somehow I like this statement which just explains to me that it is best 'when in Rome do as the Romans do'.
"In Western society, men do not wear hats in most buildings, particularly in the home, as a sign of respect; they also do not wear them in the presence of women, particularly older women, as a sign of deference. I suggest though that ... every rule of etiquette does not require a logical reason. Many rules of etiquette are in place simply because that is the code of behavior a particular society agreed upon as appropriate. Following social etiquette, even when it doesn't have a logical reason but merely is "the way we do things," is a necessary ingredient to social harmony".

The Cathedral sits alongside Kings School which has a history all of its own. Henry VIII after disestablishing all the monasteries established within the Cathedral 50 King's Scholars as well as a Headmaster and Lower Master - so it became known as the King's School - though it appears to have been around since St. Augustine first came to Canterbury in 597 and is probably the oldest school in England. Some letters from boarders to their parents and other student reminiscences give a little insight into school life back then.

Honred madam, I am a great deell better than I was when papa was heare, and I hope you are all well. I drink milk every night and morning, and I hope papa got home well. monday was the first day of my going to skole. my brother is so very idle that mr evens doth not no what to do with him. I am your dutiful son. Edward Martin (KS 1733).
Dear Father, I am so sorry I had such a bad report. I have really done my best. It is so hard though. I have such a lot of lessons to learn. I am doing scanning, Ovid, decimals and lots of things I'd never done before. I was sixth again last week. I can't get any higher. I wish I could. But most of the boys have been in the form over a year…Excuse me for writing so badly and shortly. I'm writing with a bent nib and I get smacked when I'm not looking. Please send me my crest-book. Thank you very much for 2/6. The trousers have come. Love to all. Hugh Walpole (KS 1896-98)...

…And to Public School I duly went: King's School, Canterbury, was my father's choice. I stayed there a week before I ran away: I was sent back, and at the end of another week, ran away again. Thus my Public School career lasted a fortnight… The worst I had to fear from the war was that it would be as bad as going back to the King's School again: but it never was. Jocelyn Brooke (KS 1922), The Military Orchid (1948).

The Cathedral drew me. I loved its sweet bells… each visit to that mellow pile of stones filled me with awe and aroused emotions for which I had no means of expression. Best of all I loved to be within myself yet part of a crocodile of boys, shuffling silently through dark vaulted passages along well worn flag stones on our way into the school chapel in the Cathedral on dark Sunday evenings in winter. There was a ghostly, celibate purity about this, inspired by thoughts of generations of monks who had walked there before us way back in medieval times.William Simpson (KS 1929-32).
The masters had no patience with modern ideas of education, which they read of sometimes in The Times orThe Guardian, and hoped fervently that King's School would remain true to its old traditions. The dead languages were taught with such thoroughness that an old boy seldom thought of Homer or Virgil in after life without a qualm of boredom; and though in the common room at dinner one or two of the bolder spirits suggested that mathematics were of increasing importance, the general feeling was that they were a less noble study than the classics. Somerset Maugham (KS 1885-1889), Of Human Bondage (1915).

"The Headmaster, Mr Latter (‘Algy’), was over six feet tall with a black undulating moustache similar to that which adorned Lord Kitchener on the 1914 enlistment posters. Like the poster, his hand pointing in your direction meant trouble. He sent for me one day. ‘You’re not paying attention to your maths, Mitchell,’ he said. ‘You’re not trying. Here are six simple mathematical problems. I will sit at my desk to do my work. Each time you finish a problem, bring the result to me. If it is correct, – all well and good. If it is not, you get three of the best!’ … By sheer concentration I was able to work out that three strokes of the cane and six wrong results would add up to eighteen strokes. Most boys only got six strokes for something really bad and I had not done anything yet. Ten minutes later I got up and approached him fearfully with the fruits of my labour… The rest of the afternoon I spent trying to sit down between errors. It seemed a long session. Fortunately he too became exhausted. For my part mathematics in general remained unsolved for life. Leslie Mitchell (KS 1914-1920), Leslie Mitchell Reporting… (1981)

http://www.kings-school.co.uk/document_1.aspx?id=1:32018&id=1:31658&id=1:31637


And to finish off our wander around Canterbury we walked along the Kings Mile. It is full of amazing little boutique shops in delightful old buildings one of which has a sloping red door. This was formerly the Old Kings School Shop built in 1647. On the top of the door is an inscription a quote from Charles Dickens
"a very old house building out over the road, leaning forward, trying to see who was passing on the narrow pavement below".  I could almost see the old house creaking as it peered round the corner watching us taking photos.

On the way back we found a pasty and coffee shop, rather nice with lots of pictures of Cornwall and then we went and retrieved our bags from the hotel before heading along the A2, M2, M20, M26, M25 (very slowly on that one), M23 to Gatwick airport. Think that is the most motorways in one trip so far...Mike and Barbara got held up on the M25 as well (going the other way – so the world’s biggest car park or more officially known as the London Orbital continues to live up to its name) and eventually we found each other at the bag drop area. We spent a couple of hours sipping tea, chatting and reading (haven’t we done this recently before at the same airport?) and then caught a non-eventful flight to Vienna. Worried about missing dinner we encouraged Harry to ring up and leave a message on the answerphone saying that there were 4 very hungry people arriving late. Since the boat is a French company in a German speaking city and we could have rung the phone for the MV Beethoven when we were booked on the MV Vivaldi it is doubtful if that message ever got through.  We got dinner anyway – a nice four course meal with salads, cheese, schnitzel and apple strudel. Not the typical smorgasbord meal we were expecting and quite a nice change as we always tend to eat too much with those ‘all you can eat’ meals. After dinner we headed to reception to book for some tours – like the one to Schrobrunn palace the next day.  The French concierge who could speak English encouraged us (as he did the Spanish four before us) to catch the underground to the palace as the tour guide was French speaking only and all of the cruise passengers are French except for us 4 and the Spanish 4. So, we took his advice and saved some money and decided he didn't have a future in sales. The boat is relatively new having had its first cruise in April 2009.  So, everything was clean and sparkling and the chairs look as though they have never been sat it.  The crew is very pleasant and mainly French, and in the bar couple of singers sang the night away with a mixture of English and French songs and English songs sung in French. So, with welcome cocktails and a dance floor and a pack of cards it looks as though this cruise has all the makings of being good.