Chapter II: Part 2

It would tire you were I to attempt to show all the bridges under which we pass, but there is one which we must not omit. This is Waterloo Bridge, architecturally the finest bridge in London, perhaps the finest of all the buildings in London. The road, as you see, is quite level, and it is carried upon a series of great stone arches. The bridge is called Waterloo Bridge because it was completed soon after the Battle of Waterloo. As we go through London you will find that there are two famous battles--the Battle of Waterloo on the land, and the Battle of Trafalgar on the sea--which are constantly remembered by Englishmen. They were fought ninety and a hundred years ago. Because Britain was victorious in them the British Empire exists to-day. Therefore these battles and the men who fought them are deemed worthy of commemoration in the metropolis of the Empire. Beyond Waterloo Bridge we see on the slide a fine building known as Somerset House, the office into which the taxes of the people of England are paid for the government of the country.

[Sidenote: 15. The Embankment at Waterloo Bridge.]

[Sidenote: 16. Cleopatra’s Needle and Somerset House.]

[Sidenote: 17. The Thames Embankment.]

[Sidenote: 18. The Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.]

[Sidenote: 19. Westminster Abbey from Dean’s Yard.]

Here we have one of the arches of Waterloo Bridge, spanning the riverside road which is known as the Thames Embankment. The traffic from north to south is carried, as you see, over the bridge, while that from east to west passes under it. Here we have yet another view of the Embankment, with Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge in the distance. We can see Somerset House better in this view, because the bridge is not in the way. In the foreground we have Cleopatra’s Needle, a single piece of stone as high as a tower. It was brought from Egypt in a specially built ship, having been presented to the Queen of England by a former Khedive of Egypt. The next slide shows the bend of the river, with the Embankment beside it. You see the trees planted along the road--they are green in the summer, but in winter the leaves fall and they are black. In the distance, showing over the housetops, is the great dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. At last we reach Westminster, and look across the water to two of the chief buildings of London, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The Houses of Parliament were erected in the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, but Westminster Abbey was built more than 600 years ago. We have here a view of the Abbey from the land side.

[Sidenote: 20. The King opening Parliament--the State Coach.]

[Sidenote: 21. The same--the Procession.]

[Sidenote: 22. The Coronation in Westminster Abbey.]

[Sidenote: 23. The same, another view.]

[Sidenote: 24. The King and Queen at the opening of Parliament.]

[Sidenote: 25. His Majesty the King.]

Westminster is the centre of the Empire. Here at the beginning of his reign the King is crowned. Here each year he opens the Session of Parliament. Let us see something of the splendid pageants which take place at Westminster on these occasions. This, for instance, is the King driving in the Coach of State, with the Queen beside him. And here is a photograph of the procession through the streets at the opening of Parliament. Next we have the Coronation in Westminster Abbey, and in another slide a more general view of the interior of the Abbey on that great day when his present Majesty, the Emperor-King, Edward VII., was crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the presence of the chief men of the Kingdom, and of the Empire, and of visitors from all parts of the world. The picture is taken at the moment when the Crown, the emblem of royal authority, is being placed upon the King’s head. In his hand he holds the Sceptre. In the next slide we have the King and Queen Alexandra seated upon the throne at the opening of Parliament, and then follows a portrait of the King in the Robes of State.

[Sidenote: 26. Westminster Abbey--Poets’ Corner.]

After the solemn state of these great ceremonies, we will return for a moment when the Abbey is empty, and look, not at living people, but at the monuments which record the famous men who in the past have helped to make the British Empire. This is called the Poets’ Corner. Here in this particular corner of the Abbey are gathered together the monuments of the men who have written. By inspiring the British race with noble ideas they have helped to make the Empire no less than have the victors of Trafalgar and Waterloo. All the Abbey is full of monuments--in other parts of it you will find record of the statesmen who have given counsel to our Kings and Queens, and of the soldiers and sailors who have fought for them. Here, too, are the monuments of Viceroys of India.

[Sidenote: 27. The Houses of Parliament from Whitehall.]

Let us cross the road to the Houses of Parliament, first glancing at them once more from the outside. We see the two lofty towers, visible, when the weather is clear, from every hill round London. This is the Victoria Tower, named after Queen Victoria, and this is the Clock Tower. When Parliament is sitting by day a flag is flown from the Victoria Tower, and when it sits after dark a powerful electric light shines from the Clock Tower, so that all men may know that laws are being made for the government of the Empire.

[Sidenote: 28. Westminster Hall--Interior.]

We will enter the building through Westminster Hall, which was part of the Old Westminster Palace of the Kings of England. Set round it are statues of our past Kings and Queens. Formerly the Parliament met to give counsel, and the Judges sat to give justice, in the King’s Palace, but in more recent times the business of the country has become so great that it cannot well be housed in a single building. The Palace of Westminster has, therefore, been given wholly to Parliament, and has been rebuilt, except for this splendid Hall, which has been preserved.

[Sidenote: 29. House of Lords--Interior.]

[Sidenote: 30. House of Commons during Debate.]

Let us pass on, and look for a moment into the House of Lords in the morning when it is empty, and the sun is shining through the windows. Here is the throne upon which the King sits when he opens the session of Parliament each year. Parliament consists of two bodies of men, who are known as the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Lords are the great dignitaries of the realm--the chief landowners, merchants, lawyers, and bishops. The Commons, on the other hand, though many of them are rich and clever men, do not help to make the laws because of their position in the State, but because they are elected by the people of England to tell the King what the people wish for. Here is one of the most celebrated of Englishmen, the late Mr. Gladstone, speaking in the Commons as the King’s Prime Minister. It is the Prime Minister’s duty each evening to tell the King what the Commons have said, and so, though the King is not there, the King and the Commons work together for the government and peace of the Empire.

[Sidenote: 31. Cabinet Council.]

These two large assemblies, the Lords and the Commons--each of them containing several hundred men--could not conduct the detailed business of the country. A small number of them, therefore, are chosen to be the King’s Ministers, and the Ministers form a Committee or Council, which is called the Cabinet. Here is a picture of a Cabinet Meeting. It meets privately; no one knows what the Cabinet says in its discussions--we only know what it decides to do. Presiding over the particular Cabinet shown in this picture is another great Englishman, now dead, the late Lord Salisbury. Among the other Ministers you will see Lord George Hamilton, who was at the time Secretary of State for India.

[Sidenote: 32. The Treasury.]

[Sidenote: 33. The Admiralty.]

[Sidenote: 34. The Foreign Office.]

[Sidenote: 35. The Law Courts.]

Near to the Houses of Parliament are the offices of the various Ministers. They are large and handsome buildings, for each Minister has a staff of officials under him. Here, for instance, is the Treasury, where the finances of the country are managed. And here is the Admiralty, whence the British Navy in all parts of the world is controlled by means of telegraphic messages. Here, seen from one of the parks, is the fine building in which are housed both the India Office and the Colonial Office. The part of it to the left hand, with the tower, contains the Foreign Office, where business is transacted between the British Empire and foreign countries. The India Office is at this right-hand corner. The Prime Minister lives in a house opposite to the door of the Foreign Office, in a little street called Downing Street, and the Government is, therefore, often spoken of simply as Downing Street. Finally, we have the Law Courts, which, until lately were in the Palace at Westminster.

[Sidenote: 36. St. James’s Palace.]

[Sidenote: 37. Buckingham Palace.]

[Sidenote: 38. Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, with her Son, Grandson, and Great-Grandson.]

The Palaces of the King are only a short way from the Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. Here is St. James’s Palace, where the Sovereign sometimes holds great receptions of his subjects. Do you see the sentry at the door? He is one of the King’s Guards, a chosen body of soldiers, who remain near the King’s Palaces, except when they are sent out of the country to take part in foreign wars. Here is Buckingham Palace, where the King lives when he is in London. Behind it there is a large garden. Remember, however, that great as he is, the King is a man, just as we are. He is a father and a grandfather, and he had a mother, our beloved Queen and Empress Victoria. In this picture we have four generations of the Royal Family of England; Queen Victoria, who was our Sovereign, King Edward VII., who is our Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, who will be King after his father, and the little Prince Edward of Wales--destined, we hope, some day to ascend the throne of his ancestors. It is the throne of one-fifth of all the world.

[Sidenote: 39. The Crowd at the Funeral of Queen Victoria.]

[Sidenote: 40. Police regulating Traffic.]

[Sidenote: 41. A Policeman.]

From the King let us turn to his people. Here is a crowd of the people of London, gathered in the Park when Queen Victoria was taken to be buried. It was a mighty, silent crowd, never to be forgotten by those who saw it. Of course there are some people in the great crowds of London, as of all other places, who are bad and disorderly, but in general the people of London obey the Law. Here, for instance, we have a busy point where four streets meet. Two policemen control the traffic, now letting this stream of carriages pass, and now that. Often a driver is in haste, but when the policeman raises his hand, the driver silently waits until he has leave to proceed. Only in this way could seven millions of people live together and do their business. The policemen of London are a fine body of strong men, who very rarely lose their tempers or presence of mind, whatever the sudden difficulty with which they may be faced. Here is one of them politely telling the way to an enquiring stranger. You see that he carries no firearms, yet there are only about 20,000 police to manage all these people.

[Sidenote: 42. Hyde Park--Rotten Row.]

[Sidenote: 43. St. James’s Park--Children at Play.]

[Sidenote: 44. The same--Children Fishing.]

[Sidenote: 45. The Zoological Gardens.]

[Sidenote: 46. Flowers in the Park.]

[Sidenote: 47. The Crystal Palace.]

[Sidenote: 48. St. Thomas’s Hospital.]

Perhaps the most beautiful possessions of London are the parks, in which, in the midst of their province of houses, the people take exercise and find health and amusement. None of the other cities of the world--not Paris, or Berlin, or New York, or Peking, or Calcutta--have anything quite similar to the parks of London, for they are not formal gardens or bare parade grounds, but pieces of rural country; and they are not just outside the town, but contained in its midst. This is a celebrated road in Hyde Park, where only horses and no carriages go. It is called Rotten Row. Here we see it on a summer day, when the sun is shining, with men and women upon horseback taking the air. But the parks are not merely for the amusement of the rich people who can afford to keep horses; they are also for the poor. Here, for instance, we have a picture of children at play, and here another, taken in St. James’s Park, showing children fishing for the little fish that live in the water of the lake. In Regent’s Park there is a Zoological Garden, in which are kept animals from all parts of the world. Here we see a group of children, who, by way of a holiday treat, are having a few moments on the back of an elephant. These parks of London have much money spent upon them, so that the poor people of London have in parts of them gardens to look upon which are as fine as the gardens of rich men. Here, for example, we have a scene among the flowers in Hyde Park. Nor must we forget the Crystal Palace, an immense house of glass, where the people may find amusement in all weathers. Of course there are still large parts of London which are ugly, and completely covered with small houses. In these parts the life of the people in the dark, chilly, wet winter is not very bright. But men are always at work to better these wretched quarters, and gradually they will disappear. To serve the poor who fall ill, a number of large hospitals have been built, and some of these are fine buildings, and well placed. Here, beside Westminster Bridge, is St. Thomas’s Hospital, which faces the Houses of Parliament.

[Sidenote: 49. The Imperial Institute and London University.]

Now let us consider another aspect of London. To rule an Empire of 300,000,000 people men require skill, and must be educated. Nearly every man and woman in all the seven millions of London can now read and write. There are hundreds of free schools where these things are taught. But the Ministers of the King, and the judges, and the administrators who go out to the Colonies, require greater skill, and for them, and for the doctors and engineers and other learned people, there are Universities. Here is the fine building occupied in part by the Imperial Institute and in part by the University of London. You know of the University of London, because it holds examinations not only in London but also in other parts of the Empire--for instance, in Ceylon.

[Sidenote: 50. British Museum--Interior of the Egyptian Room, with Rosetta Stone.]

Here we come to another of the great centres of learning in London. This is the British Museum, in which have been gathered historical treasures and documents from all parts of the world. The library of the museum contains more than a million books. In the room that is here shown, you see on the stand in the centre one of the most celebrated of all documents. It is written on a stone, called the Rosetta Stone, because it was found at Rosetta in Egypt. Men have learnt from it--because it is written in two languages side by side--to understand the ancient language of the Egyptians. It is necessary to gather these treasures together in the centre of the Empire in order that learned men may study them conveniently, and compare them with one another, without having to lose time in long journeys.

[Sidenote: 51. Trafalgar Square.]

Now let us leave Westminster and the West End of the town, and as we drive through the streets towards the City of London, the place of merchants, let us stop on the way for a moment to see some of the chief monuments which record the history of the British Empire. This is Trafalgar Square, named after the greatest victory at sea. Here is the monument of Admiral Lord Nelson, who won the battle and died in the moment of victory. There in the centre, standing upon a smaller column, is a more recent monument, erected in memory of General Gordon, of whom probably you have heard. He fought for China in the Taiping rebellion, and afterwards died for Britain at Khartoum.

[Sidenote: 52. St. Paul’s Cathedral--West Front.]

[Sidenote: 53. St. Paul’s Cathedral--Interior.]

[Sidenote: 54. Nelson’s Tomb.]

[Sidenote: 55. Wellington’s Tomb.]

Next we come to St. Paul’s Cathedral, of which this is the West Front and the chief entry. Before it is a statue of Queen Anne, one of the Sovereigns of England, who lived 200 years ago. The Cathedral was rebuilt in her reign. Here is the interior, with the sunbeams striking down from the dome. To the left is the tomb of the Duke of Wellington, who won the battle of Waterloo. In the crypt below is also the tomb of Lord Nelson, who saved the Empire in the battle of Trafalgar. Here we have another and nearer view of the tomb of the Duke of Wellington.

[Sidenote: 56. The Royal Exchange and the Bank.]

We will now drive on to the middle of the City. Here to the left is the Bank of England, the centre of the finance of the Empire. Beside it is the Royal Exchange, on the upper floor of which the insurance of ships at sea is effected. The statue is of the Duke of Wellington, and was erected by the merchants of London. See the dense traffic of carriages, for this is the very heart of the business quarter of London, and it is the busiest time of the day. If you saw this very spot late on a summer’s evening, or if you saw it on a Sunday, the day of rest, you would find it quiet and nearly empty.

[Sidenote: 57. View from the Dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.]

Had we climbed just now to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral and looked eastward over the City, we should have seen in the background the river and the Tower Bridge, but in the foreground the broad roof of Cannon Street Railway Station. There are many railway stations in the City, and for the following reason. The City of London, which measures one square mile, is occupied at night by only 27,000 people. In the daytime there are probably 360,000 people at work in it. These people go out at night to sleep in Outer London, and are brought back in the morning by trains, by omnibuses, and by cabs.

[Sidenote: 58. Day and Night Populations of the City.]

This diagram shows you clearly the meaning of these facts. The largest (pink) square represents the population of Greater London. The very small (black) square in the centre is the night population of the City. The square (red) of intermediate size represents the number of the people who crowd into the City in the daytime but at night sleep without. So that the City is like a huge pulsating heart, which sends its blood outward through the streets and along the railways at evening, and receives it back in the morning.

[Sidenote: 59. Interior of St. Pancras Station.]

Finally, we enter one of the chief stations of London, whence the trains start, not only at morning and evening, in and out between the centre and the suburbs, but also on longer journeys past the green farms and busy factories of Britain to the coasts which everywhere surround it. London is only the heart and the brain of the Empire; it could not stand alone, for there is no food grown in it. London is great only because Britain is a productive country and the British Empire is great. Therefore, when we have rested after our sight-seeing in the metropolis, we will go out to the green fields and the smaller towns, and will see what England and Scotland and Ireland are like, for from them have come the men who have made both London and the Empire.

LECTURE III.

THE SCENERY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

[Sidenote: 1. Physical Map of British Isles.]

At the close of the last Lecture we found ourselves in one of the chief railway stations of London, from which the railways go out through the open country--twenty different lines in twenty different directions--to end on the coasts around the island of Great Britain. We might, of course, take a train from one of these stations and travel rapidly through the country; but I prefer that you should go another way, by which you will see more. Here, in this map, we have the English Channel, up which our steamer brought us from India. We see the promontory of Kent round which we came; we note the Straits of Dover across which the Indian mails are carried; and we see the Thames, up which we passed into the midst of the great city--to the Tower Bridge and London Bridge.

I now propose taking you up the River Thames beyond London. We will travel up the river almost to its source here in the Cotswold Hills, and we will look from the brink of the hills westward over the country beyond. This will give us a very good idea of the rolling, fertile plain which occupies all the South of England. Then returning to the east again we will follow the coast round from the Fens to Kent, and to the promontory of Cornwall. The rest of Britain may best be seen in two strips. The first begins here in Cornwall and Devonshire, and extends northward through Wales and the Lake District into the east of Scotland. It is mountainous, and has many beautiful wooded landscapes. The second begins in the South and West of Ireland, and extends up the West of Scotland. This also is mountainous, but it is on the edge of the stormy ocean, and is mostly naked and without trees, but has magnificent cliff scenery.

[Sidenote: 2. Thames Steamboat on Bank Holiday.]

Now let us start on our trip through Britain. Here is a steamboat on the Thames above London. It is crowded with people, for the photograph was taken on a Bank Holiday. On four week-days, and four only, in the year the Banks are closed, and business ceases, while everyone makes holiday. Those who live in the metropolis naturally spend the day outside, among the green fields and on the river banks.

[Sidenote: 3. Richmond Bridge.]

[Sidenote: 4. Richmond--View down the River.]

Here is another scene on the Thames. It is near Richmond Bridge. There are holiday makers who prefer to spend their holiday quietly, fishing in the river. Next is a view from Richmond Bridge itself. See the crowd of little boats ready for those who would take their pleasure in that manner.

[Sidenote: 5. Magna Charta Island.]

We gradually leave the neighbourhood of London and come to quieter reaches of the Thames, where the water is never disturbed by the tide, and rich green meadows edge the silent stream. This is a little island in the river where, seven hundred years ago, Magna Charta was signed--the famous document by which the then King of England granted to his people ways of justice which have been practised ever since. But the island is now merely a little green spot, surrounded by rippling water, upon which a house has been built for the refreshment of passing boat people.

[Sidenote: 6. Clieveden.]

[Sidenote: 7. Nuneham Bridge.]

We glide on to places where the woods cover steep slopes and overhang the water. Here, for example, we have such a wooded bank, crowned with the country house of a rich man. And here another wooded scene, with a timber bridge, and a cottage hidden away among the leaves.

[Sidenote: 8. Landscape from Cotswolds.]

[Sidenote: 9. The same--Bredon Hill.]

[Sidenote: 10. The same--Saintbury.]

But we must not think only of holidays, or of the Thames as an idle river in a rich country. England is a fertile country, and cultivated almost from end to end. There are crops of grain--wheat, barley, and oats, which, as you know, in the northern countries take the place of rice--and there are also broad fields of green grass where the cattle and sheep feed. Here is a view taken from the edge of the Cotswold Hills, near the source of the Thames. It gives a good idea of an open countryside in England. The land, as you see, is cut into fields by hedgerows, which are long belts of green, growing bush planted for the purpose of preventing the cattle and sheep in one field from straying into the next, where they might damage the standing crops. If you looked down upon such a country from a balloon, you would see it divided into little oblongs and squares, all beautifully kept. Many of them would be green with grass, but others would change in colour with the season, showing ploughed soil in the winter, green growing corn in the spring, and golden harvest in the autumn. But at all times the bushy hedgerows would strike you most, for in other countries men use fences of dead wood or of iron wire, but the green hedges of England, often bright with flowers, are a sight never to be forgotten. The roads traverse the country between two lines of hedge almost all the way. Here is another scene in the same part of England, and yet another, with the fields and hedges spreading away to the horizon.

[Sidenote: 11. Landscape--Brook and Poplars.]

Next we come to a landscape such as you find beside the brooks which wander sluggishly through the rich plain. Note the tall poplar trees set against the shining western sky, for it is evening, and the man and boy are going home after their work in the fields.

[Sidenote: 12. Scene in the Fens.]

There are parts of England which were once marsh, but have long been drained and brought under tillage. In these the hedges are usually wanting, for the ditches serve to divide the fields. The chief district of this kind is known as the Fens. It is situated near the East coast. Here we have a Fen scene, with a horizon like that of the sea, so level is this old marsh land. Note the windmill for pumping the water out of the lower ditches into the higher. The wind sweeps freely over the great flat expanse.

[Sidenote: 13. Surrey Pine Wood.]

[Sidenote: 14. Knole Park.]

[Sidenote: 15. “The Monarch,” Cassiobury Park.]

You must remember that, although it very rarely rains as heavily in England as in India, and there are no Monsoons, yet there is rarely a season of so much as a few weeks in which it does not rain a little. England is, therefore, a moist land on the whole. It must once have been clothed with forest and marsh almost from end to end; now, however, there are left only small patches of woodland, and no marshes at all. Here is a typical scene in a pine wood in a sandy district not far from London. Most of the woods are round the parks or pleasure grounds of rich men. These parks are among the most beautiful spots in England. You will remember that in the last lecture we saw how that the public parks of London were perhaps the most beautiful and characteristic things in the metropolis. If you were to look down from almost any high hill upon a cultivated English landscape with fields and hedges, you would probably notice two or three large green spaces--larger than a good many fields put together. These would arrest your attention because of their lack of hedges and because of the trees scattered about them. Round their borders you would see several plantations or patches of woodland. In the centre of each would be the mansion of a rich man. The people of the neighbourhood are generally allowed to go freely through these parks, and to use them as playgrounds except, of course, close to the house. Here we have a scene in Knole Park. One of the most remarkable points about the parks of England is the fact that since there is no undergrowth, and since the trees are felled and thinned out, each tree grows to perfection, spreading out to its proper shape in a way that we rarely see when trees are crowded together in a forest. Some of these park trees grow to a magnificent size, and to a great age. Here is one in Cassiobury Park, known as “The Monarch.”

[Sidenote: 16. A Garden.]

Immediately round the park-house of the great man you will find a garden--a garden that is kept, every yard of it, with the greatest care. The grass is beautifully green, and is cut short, so that it becomes a natural carpet. The hedges are pruned, and grow so thick that they become living walls through which you cannot see. To these gardens are brought trees and plants from all parts of the world. There are even tropical plants, but these must of course be grown under cover of glass, which lets in the sun’s light and heat but keeps out the cold. You remember the giant glass house of London, which was spoken of in the last lecture as the Crystal Palace. In the garden before us we see a tree known as the Araucaria, which is brought from the cooler parts of South America, and will grow in the gardens of England without glass shelter. Palms, however, will not grow in England in the open air, though they are often exposed in the gardens as special treasures during the summer.

Let us now look at some of the more exceptional scenes in the British Isles, for the things which to you are least familiar--the great green carpet of grass, the long lines of green hedgerow, the white roads between twin hedges--all these things, which to you appear strange, occur for so many miles in the country of England, that they are common and hardly noticed by the people who live among them. There are scenes in the British Isles, however, which even English people go to look at, and in some parts these are so beautiful that people of other countries travel far in order to see them. We will begin with the coast districts along the East and South of England, and then we will go to the two strips of mountainous country which I pointed out to you just now on the map.

[Sidenote: 17. The Downs--The Devil’s Dyke.]

[Sidenote: 18. Dover Cliff.]

This is a scene on the Downs--long lines of hill made of the same white chalk which is exposed in the cliffs of Dover. The chalk forms treeless, hedgeless, breezy uplands with winding and branching valleys. The hills between the valleys are rounded like great shoulders, and are all overgrown with a thin grass, short like velvet, upon which feed many small sheep. Here and there the white chalk shows through, as it were a scar on the hillside, and the roads are white lines running up and down hill. Here is a view on the edge of the Down country, overlooking lower wooded ground. The valley entering the hills to the right is very deeply cut and is known as the Devil’s Dyke. At Dover, and at several other places on the coast, the Downs come to a sudden end at the cliff brink, and you can see layer upon layer of white chalk cut short by the waves rolling in from the sea. To-day, in places like Dover, men have built walls which stop the waves from breaking away more of the land.

[Sidenote: 19. Sea breaking at Lyme Regis.]

[Sidenote: 20. Cliff at Sidmouth.]

[Sidenote: 21. Beach at Exmouth.]

The people of England are very fond of the sea-coast and many of them live there for a time each year for reasons of pleasure and health. There is exhilaration in such scenes as this, where the waves break against the stone piers which have been built out into the sea. Or again, what could be more pleasant than to wander along such a coast as this, and to note the evidence of the sea’s might in the broken and caverned rocks? But children love sandy shores, where they may dig with small spades and build castles of sand, which for a few moments resist the waves of the incoming tide. The tides are large along the British coasts, and in many parts broad shores of sand are alternately covered by the water and uncovered.

[Sidenote: 22. Clovelly.]

[Sidenote: 23. Lynton--Road through Wood.]

[Sidenote: 24. Lynmouth Waterfall.]

[Sidenote: 25. Dartmoor.]

[Sidenote: 26. Land’s End--Longships Lighthouse.]

Now we come to the first of the two strips of mountainous country which I have described to you on the map as occupying the West and North of Britain. There is much rain in these districts, brought by the west wind from the neighbouring ocean. Here is a little village by the sea in the West Country. It is called Clovelly. You see the houses of the fishermen running up the hillside, and you see how the whole hill is covered with trees, because of the moisture of the air. Let us drive into these woods by the roads which have been constructed through them. This is a view at Lynton in the same West Country as Clovelly. Here is yet another scene in the district showing a waterfall in the wood. If we drive further inland, up some valley, we emerge presently on to the high ground above, where the violent winds and the torrents, fed by the rains, prevent the growth of much wood, and give us naked landscapes such as this upon Dartmoor. You notice here a characteristic of the hilly parts of England; the green hedgerows are wanting, and the fields are divided by stone walls--rough stone walls, without cement. But even here there grows a low bush, called gorse, which bears many small yellow flowers, and at times this bush covers entire hillsides with a cloak of brilliant gold. Now we come to the rocky coast of Cornwall, known expressively as the Land’s End. It is very different from the tamer edge of the chalk country. See how the hard dark rocks have been shattered by the mighty Atlantic waves, and see how the dangers which they present to navigation are guarded against by the Longships Lighthouse. Notice the ship going round the point beyond the lighthouse. It is steering northward to go up the channel of sea which divides the island of Great Britain from that of Ireland.

[Sidenote: 27. Snowdon.]

[Sidenote: 28. Welsh Bicknor--Cattle in River.]

[Sidenote: 29. The Wye.]

We will travel gradually northward through the inner strip of mountainous country. We come first to the peninsular land of Wales, where live the Welsh people, some of whom still speak the Welsh language, though most of them can now talk English. Here is a view from the island of Anglesea, across the Menai Strait to the barren heights of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. In the foreground are bridges over the narrow strait, the one for the railway, the other for the road. The name Snowdon is derived from the fact that the white snow which falls in the winter lies upon the summit longer than upon the lesser heights around. But remember that in Wales you are still in the middle strip of Britain, and deep down in the valleys between the mountains there are rich, woodland scenes. Here is a spot on the River Wye. It is a stream of pure water coming down from the mountains, with a wood covering the hillside and cattle cooling their feet in the water. Here is yet another scene on the same river, where a gorge traverses the rocks, but the steep slope is overgrown with trees because of the moisture.

Next we go northward from Wales into that part of the North of England which is called the Lake District. In the northern, and also in the more southern regions of the world--in parts of North America, in parts of South America, and in New Zealand--there are countries sown all over with the most beautiful lakes--lakes that are narrow and long and deep, with rivers flowing into one end and out again from the other end. These lakes are often in mountain valleys, and if the slopes on either hand be wooded, they present some of the most beautiful scenes in the world. Outside Britain such valley lakes occur in Norway, in the west of North America, in the west of South America, and in New Zealand. The Lake District of England is a little knot of mountains, with deep valleys radiating from the central peaks like the spokes of a wheel. Each of the valleys contains a lake.

[Sidenote: 30. Ullswater.]

[Sidenote: 31. Lodore Falls.]

[Sidenote: 32. Bridge at Lodore.]

Here is a view of Ullswater, one of these lakes. Do you see the combination of hill, and water, and green tree growth which together make the picture? Here is another scene in the same Lake Country, where the clear, fresh water from the hilltops comes leaping over the little rocks through a tunnel of green leaves, with here and there a gleam of the sunshine piercing through. And all the time there is laughter, as the poets say, to be heard in the tumbling water. Yet one more scene of the same kind from the same Lake Country.

[Sidenote: 33. Loch Lomond.]

Let us now go on to Scotland. In part it is a lake country like the North of England, but on a rather larger scale. Here is Loch Lomond, one of the most famous of the Scottish lakes. The word loch is Scottish for lake. The Scottish people used in many parts to talk a language of their own, but, like the Welsh, most of them now talk English, and form, with the English, a single people, loyal to one king.

[Sidenote: 34. Ben Venue.]

Here are a few more views in the same country. This is Ben Venue--the word Ben in Scottish means “mount.” We note in this slide the same combination of beautiful mountain forms, water, green foliage, little islands with green trees upon them, and houses hidden away in the nooks. It is a wild and yet a soft and inhabited country. It is loved by the Scottish people, whose great writers have written tales and poems about it. You know that it is the poetry and the songs and the legends of a race which make a nation proud. Scotchmen working in many a distant land, remember the time of their childhood when they lived among these scenes, and far away they still read the books which tell of them.

[Sidenote: 35. Killiecrankie.]

[Sidenote: 36. Loch Katrine.]

Here is the Pass of Killiecrankie, famous in history for a battle of a hundred and sixty years ago--one of the last battles fought within the British Isles. And here, lastly, is Loch Katrine, with a steamer conveying tourists to enjoy the scenery. Loch Katrine is close to the manufacturing district of Scotland, where is Glasgow, a city of a million inhabitants. Now great cities have great wants, and one of the wants--most costly to supply but essential to health--is pure water. The water of Loch Katrine, deep and clear, gathered from the mountains, is carried underground through a tunnel pierced by man to supply the great city of Glasgow. Wherever you go in the British Islands you will find within a few miles of one another the silent beauties of Nature, and teeming, noisy homes of millions of people, for the land is but a small one, and is crowded with inhabitants.

[Sidenote: 37. Giants’ Causeway.]

[Sidenote: 38. Basalt--near view.]

Let us now pass to the second strip of mountainous country--to the bleak coast-land along the Atlantic edge of Ireland and Scotland; and here let us first visit a district containing some of the chief natural wonders of Britain. You know that in certain parts of the world there are mountains called volcanoes, which have heat within them, and throw up great clouds of steam, to be seen glowing in the brilliant light for a great distance round. At times streams of hot liquid rock flow from them, which may cover a whole countryside, destroying vegetation, houses, and people. In Asia there are such volcanoes, in Japan, in the Philippines, in Sumatra, and in Java, but fortunately there are none in India. In the British Islands also there are to-day no volcanoes, but before history began this region had volcanoes on a magnificent scale. In the West Country beside the ocean--in the north of Ireland and in the West of Scotland--there once welled up from underneath immense quantities of flowing hot stone, which hardened into thick beds of rock. While the stone was cooling it usually cracked, as you may see the silt beside river banks crack in hot sunshine along many lines crossing one another. In the same manner, this liquid rock cracked as it cooled, and because it was of very even consistence the cracks were regular in their distribution. The result was that the rock was split into columns standing side by side. Here, in the North of Ireland, is such columnar rock. The place is known as the Giants’ Causeway, for the people in the North of Ireland who lived centuries ago, and were ignorant, wondered at this beautiful regular rock structure. The tops of the columns are like a pavement, and the Irish said that the pavement must have been made by giants. Therefore it was called the Giants’ Causeway. But each slab, as we see in the next slide, is the top of a column and is separated from its neighbouring columns by the cracks which formed in the cooling rock as it solidified. So we realise how much more wonderful is Nature than man in his ignorance is apt to think. But we realise also how the poetry of a race begins, and we understand the love with which Irishmen and Scotchmen, scattered over the world, look back on the country of their childhood, which is not only beautiful, but wrapped in the legends told them by their nurses.

[Sidenote: 39. Staffa.]

[Sidenote: 40. Fingal’s Cave.]

This is the island of Staffa, where we see the same rough pavement of column tops, and a wall of column sides. In places, where the waves of the ocean beat fiercely upon the exposed parts, some of the columns have been removed, so that the rock above has been undermined and caves have been formed, which resemble, with their vaults above and their chiselled walls on either hand, some great temple made by man.

[Sidenote: 41. Killarney.]

[Sidenote: 42. Killarney, Old Weir Bridge.]

Now let us away to the far South-West of Ireland. There, hidden in the midst of high mountains, are the Lakes of Killarney. This is one of the most beautiful spots in all Britain, for the lakes are sheltered, and though close to the ocean are wooded along their shores. Here is a view at Killarney, across the lakes to the mountains which neighbour them. Hanging round the heights are the mists and clouds of the Atlantic. All this district is bathed in moisture, and green the year round, but hardly ever free from cloud. It is the combination of mountain, lake, wood, cloud, and sunshine which gives an ever changing, always flickering, beauty to this part of the ocean edge. Here is another scene at Killarney. The boat and the men are waiting to take visitors down the stream.

[Sidenote: 43. In Connemara.]

[Sidenote: 44. Connemara--Lough Scene.]

Northward of Killarney, upon the edge of Ireland, is Connemara, a region of wild, naked rock scenery, so wet and poor that over large districts bog moss clings to the surface instead of grass. We see here the torrents of rain water descending from the mist-bathed mountains. This is another scene in the same country of Connemara with a rare clump of trees, making still more evident the general nakedness of the landscape. The beauty of it depends on the shapes of the hills, and on the alternation of land and water.

[Sidenote: 45. Highland Scene--A Stag.]

[Sidenote: 46. Highland Scene--A Golden Eagle.]

And now we come to the grandest, most lonely scenery in the Western Highlands of Scotland. Here on the heathery and grassy moors, which spread for miles and miles over the mountain heights, are still to be found some of the wild animals of Britain, which elsewhere have been driven from the land by civilisation. This is a stag of the large species known as the Red Deer. You see here the colouring of the moors and the atmospheric effects which you must put for yourselves into the black and white photographs that follow. But first we have another colour photograph, a golden eagle beside her nest on the crags.

[Sidenote: 47. Sligachan, Skye.]

[Sidenote: 48. Glen Sligachan, Skye.]

[Sidenote: 49. Loch Coruisk, Skye.]

Now we have two or three views in the Island of Skye. They are in black and white, but your minds must clothe them in the rich tints we saw just now. Note the treeless character of the scene. And see here a mountain rising nakedly to the sky, without even the covering of grass or heather. And again, in this same Island of Skye is Loch Coruisk, one of the wildest and remotest spots in the United Kingdom. From the head of the loch there is a walk of several miles over a mountain pass before you reach the first habitation of man. So curious is the contrast between the ocean edge of the British Islands and the thickly populated plain of England. London is the largest city in the world, but the Highlands of Scotland are among the least populated regions of all Europe. Here, therefore, is the playground of many of the British people, who go in the summer time to walk over these mountains, to steam through these lochs, to catch the fish, and to shoot the deer and the birds. So they gain the health which enables them to work in London at the business of the Empire during the dark winter.

[Sidenote: 50. Clett Rock, Thurso.]

[Sidenote: 51. Duncansby Head.]

Finally we come out to the ocean itself, and here we see the great history of Nature. Layer upon layer, hundreds of layers thick, we have the beds of rock which were once laid down at the bottom of the sea. They are now dry and hard, and have been cut into by the waves, so that this stack of rock, which was once a piece of Scotland, is now detached as a little island. Here is yet another scene where the rocks are of a different kind, and the shape of the islets therefore different.

[Sidenote: 52. Atlantic Rollers.]

[Sidenote: 53. Sunset on the Atlantic.]

These are the rollers of the rough northern sea, which work upon the hard stone. But occasionally even the Atlantic Ocean calms. As we look out to the west on this lovely summer evening, let us remember a fact never to be forgotten. The islands of Britain, which centre in London, with all their natural beauty and their 43 millions of people, are what they are, the focus of a great Empire, partly because they are set as islands in the ocean, and partly because they were peopled long ago by proud and masterful sea races of men.

LECTURE IV.

HISTORIC CENTRES AND THEIR INFLUENCE UPON NATIONAL LIFE.

[Sidenote: 1. Stonehenge.]

The English did not always live in the British Islands. They came, long centuries ago, across the sea from the mainland of Europe. Before them there lived in the islands peoples of whom we know but little. Some of these early peoples have, however, left to us monuments, which have been preserved in the more lonely parts of the country. They were apparently temples, built with great stones, such as we see here at Stonehenge. Of the language of the people who built them we know nothing--of their arts of life we know little. We believe that they were barbarous tribes who offered human sacrifices; but at least they must have had some command over machinery, or they never could have raised such stones as these, which are more than twice as high as a man.

[Sidenote: 2. The Roman Wall.]

After these people there came others, and yet others, and at last a very powerful and highly civilised people, the Romans, who conquered nearly all the Western world. They conquered England, but never Ireland or Northern Scotland. The Romans have left monuments in various parts of the country, of which the most remarkable is this wall across the island. They did not care to invade those rugged regions of the North, filled with mountains and great moorlands, which we saw in the pictures of the last Lecture. In Scotland there continued, therefore, to dwell the wild peoples who inhabited all the island before the coming of the Romans. The mountaineers were kept out of the South by a stone wall, built right across the island, the remains of which are still for the most part standing to-day. The Roman wall shows you something of the strength of the Roman people, to whom the islands of Britain owed their first civilisation.

[Sidenote: 3. Roman Bath at Bath.]

Here is another evidence of the Roman epoch in Britain. It is the ruin of a Roman bath in the town which is now called Bath. The houses around are, of course, modern. Hot water rises at Bath from great depths, and is used for medicinal purposes. The springs were known to the Romans, and for that reason they built a Roman city here. All the upper portion of the building is, as you see, gone, but there remains the bath itself, with the steps leading down to it, and the bases of the columns which formerly supported a covered way around. The Romans came from the South--from the Mediterranean--and experienced a climatic difficulty in Britain, just as white men to-day experience one in the tropics. But white men have difficulty in tropical climates because of the heat; the Romans had difficulty in the northern countries because of the cold; and therefore it was that they valued the warm water of the baths at Bath.

[Sidenote: 4. Round Tower at Glendalough.]

Christianity was first preached in Britain while the Romans were there. It was carried by missionaries even beyond the Roman frontiers into Ireland, and afterwards into Scotland. When the Romans left the country, after ruling there for 400 years, there came over the seas the forefathers of the English--a race of wild, bold seamen. They were not Christians; but at first they did not conquer either Ireland or Scotland, and the Christian religion continued among the ancient peoples of those countries. Some of the most ancient of the Irish and Scottish monuments relate to the time when the English were newly come into England. This round tower, for instance, is probably a monument of that time. It is in a very beautiful mountainous portion of Ireland, and is known as the Round Tower of Glendalough.

[Sidenote: 5. Iona Cathedral.]

Crossing the sea to Scotland, we come to the islet of Iona, placed out in the Western ocean beyond the coast of the mainland of Scotland. Here are the ruins of a Cathedral of great antiquity. At Iona there ruled the Lord of the Isles, who was King over the pirates from the North. They seized all the Western isles of Scotland and held them until about six hundred years ago, when they were defeated at sea, and there was peace on the ocean off Britain.

[Sidenote: 6. King Alfred’s Statue at Winchester.]

Let us now return to England--to the England which had been conquered by the Romans and abandoned by them, and had been conquered afresh by the tribes of the English from over the water. Let us pass on through some dark centuries, as they are called, because history has little to tell of them, until we come to the first great Englishman, King Alfred the Great, from whom our present King-Emperor, Edward the Seventh, is descended. King Alfred lived a thousand years ago, and is called Great because he united the tribes of the English, and made the Kingdom of England. Here is the monument erected in his city of Winchester on the thousandth anniversary of his death.

[Sidenote: 7. Bradford-on-Avon Church.]