"High upon Highlands And laigh upon Tay, Bonny George Campbell Ride out on a day: Saddled and bridled, So gallant to see, Home came his good horse, But never came he.

Saddled and bridled

And booted rode he

A plume to his helmet,

A sword at his knee;

But toom came his saddle

A bloody to see,

О home came his good horse,

But never came he!"

However, the Protector invaded Scotland; and the Scottish Regent with an army twice as large as his, advanced to meet him. They met on the banks of the river Esk, within a few miles of Edinburgh; and there the Protector promised to retire if the Scotch would only engage not to marry their princess to any foreign prince, and the Scottish Regent thought the English were afraid. But in this he made a horrible mistake; for the English soldiers on land and the English sailors on the water, so set upon the Scotch, that they fled, and more than ten thousand of them were killed. It was a dreadful battle. The ground for four miles, all the way to Edinburgh, was strewn with dead men, and with arms, and legs, and heads. Some hid themselves in streams and were drowned; some threw away their armour and were killed while they run; but in this battle of Pinckey (1547) the English lost only two or three hundred men. They were much better clothed than the Scotch.

Now, we must return to the story of Devonshire and Norfolk revolts. In Devonshire, the rebellion was so strong that ten thousand men united within a few days, and even laid siege to Exeter. But the rebels were defeated, and one of the leaders, the vicar, was hanged on his own church steeple.

In Norfolk the popular leader was a man named Robert Ket, a tanner of Wymondham. The mob were, in the first instance, excited against the tanner by the one John Flowerdrew, a gentlemen, whc owned him a grudge; but the tanner soon got the people on his side, and established himself near Norwich with quite an army. There was a large oak-tree in that place, on a spot called Moushold Hill, which Ket named the Tree of Reformation; and under its green boughs he and his men sat, in the midsummer weather, holding courts of justice, and debating affairs of state. They even allowed some rather tiresome public speakers to get up into that Tree of Reformation; and point out their errors to them, while they lay listening in the shade below. At last, one sunny July day, a herald appeared below the tree, and proclaimed Ket and all his men traitors, if they did not disperse and go home at once, in which case they were to receive a pardon. But Ket and his men became stronger than ever, until the Earl of Warwick went after them with a sufficient force and cut them all to pieces. A few were hanged, drawn, and quartered, as a traitors, and their limbs were sent into various country places to be a terror to the people. Nine of them were hanged upon nine green branches of the Oak of Reformation; and so, for the time, that tree may be said to have withered away.

As we already mentioned, the Duke of Somerset was arrested as a traitor and took to the Tower.

He was ordered to be headed on the Tower Hill at eight in the morning, and proclamations were issued bidding the citizens keep at home until after ten. They filled the streets, however, and crowded the place of execution as soon as it was light; and with sad faces and sad hearts saw the once powerful Duke ascent the scaffold to lay his head upon the dreadful block. While he was yet saying his last words to them with manly courage, and telling them, in particular, how it comforted him to have assisted in reforming the national religion, a member of the Council was seen riding up on horseback. They again thought that the Protector was saved, and again shouted with joy. But the Duke himself told them they were mistaken, and laid down his head and had it struck off at a blow.

Many of the bystanders rushed forward and steeped their hand kerchiefs in his blood, as a mark of their affection.

It is not very pleasant to know that while his uncle was in prison under sentence of death, the young King was being vastly entertained by plays, and dances, and sham fights: but there is no doubt in it, for he kept a journal himself.

There were only two victims in this period who perished because of their holding the Catholic religion. One of them, a woman Joan Bucher, the other -- a Dutchman. Edward was, to his credit, exceedingly unwilling to sign the warrant for the woman execution and shed tears before he made so.

Edward's sister Mary, whose mother had been Catherine of Aragon, and who inherited her mother's gloomy temper, and hated the reformed religion as connected with her mother's wrongs and sorrows - she knew nothing about it, always refusing to read a single book in which it was truly described - the Princess Mary held by the unreformed religion too, and was the only person in the kingdom for which the old Mass was allowed to be performed. In 1533 Mary, Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, became Queen of England. Because she was a Roman Catholic, the country re-entered the Roman Church. While Mary was Queen, many Protestants were burned at the stake for their beliefs. She also put her non-Roman Catholic sister, Elizabeth (the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn), into prison in the Tower of London.

Edward always viewed it with horror; and when he fell ill -- first of the measles, and then of the small-pox, he was greatly troubled in mind to think that if he died, and Mary was the next heir to the throne succeeded, the Roman Catholic religion would be set up again. In 1552 very soon after Somerset's execution, the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI was published, and it was distinctly Protestant in tone.

Protestants were glad when Mary died in 1557 and Elizabeth became Queen. Elizabeth also became Head of the Anglican Church, like her father, and Roman Catholicism was never again the established (official) religion in England.

After Elizabeth became Queen, a group of Protestants wanted to "purify" the Church of England of all Roman Catholic influence. These people were called Puritans -- they were the English Protestants. They dressed very simply and believed that all pleasures, such as fine clothes and the theatre, were wicked.

When James I was King (1603 -- 1625) the Puritans were often put in prison and sometimes even killed. Some of them decided to leave England to find freedom in a new country.

They sailed from Plymouth in 1620 in a ship called "Mayflower", and these "Pilgrim Fathers" -- as they were called -- started a new life in America.

Under the rule of James I's son, Charles I, the Puritans were treated even worse. Many people sympathized with the Puritans, and the Court was unpopular because it was suspected of being a centre of Roman Catholicism. (This was because S Charles's wife was a Roman Catholic). This religious split between the Puritans and the Court was one cause of the outbreak of civil war in 1628 and the eventual execution of Charles I. Following this, from 1649 to 1660, Britain was a republic for a short while.

2.1 Religion today

The Church of England -- or the Anglican Church-- is still the established church in England, and the British king or queen is still head of the Church. There are, however, many other churches to which people belong: for example Roman Catholics (6 million) and the basically protestant Methodists (1,150,000), Congregationalists (372,000), Baptists (338,000) and other smaller groups. The Methodists and Baptists are particularly strong in Wales.

In Scotland the Presbyterian Church (called the kirk) is the established church and it is completely separate from the Church of England. The Presby-terain Church is based on a strict form of Protestantism which was taught by a French reformer, Calvin, and brought to Scotland by John Knox.

Although there is a complete religious freedom in Britain today, there is still tension between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, where religion is still caught up with politics.

Britain's immigrants have also brought with them their own religions which they continue to practise. There are Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs from the Indian subcontinent, Rastafarians from the West Indies, and the largest group of Jews living in Europe. In spite of the great variety of forms of worship, only a minority of people regularly go to church in Britain today. Most people see Sunday as a day for relaxing with the family or for doing jobs around the house and the garden.

2.2 Newspapers

Fleet Street in London used to be the home of most national daily and Sunday newspapers. People often said "Fleet Street" to mean "the press". Today the old image of London's Fleet Street as the centre of the newspaper printing and publishing world has changed, and in fact all the big newspapers have moved from Fleet Street to more modern premises.

More daily newspapers are sold per person in the UK than in almost any other country: there are twelve national daily newspapers and evelen national Sunday ones. While the more serious newspapers, also called quality papers (for example, the "Daily Telegraph", the "Guardian", "The Times", the "Independent", the "Financial Times", the "Sunday Times", the "Observer", etc), have a lot of home and international news, some of the more popular "tabloids" (so called because of their size, for example, the "Sun", the "Daily Mirror", the "Daily Mail", the "Daily Express", the "Daily Star", etc) concentrate on the more spectacular and scandalous aspects of life in Britain. Although newspaper sales have fallen slightly over the past few years, newspapers have an important effect on public opinion. Most British newspapers are owned by big business and although they are not directly linked to political parties, there are strong connections. The majority of newspapers -- even those which carry serious news -- are conservative in outlook.

New technology has altered the whole shape of the newspaper industry. One of the beneficial results of computerised production has been improved graphics and photographs. The tendency has been for newspapers to become smaller but to contain more pages. Sunday papers have colour magazines and several of the dailies have weekend supplements. Competition for circulation is intense and newspapers have tried several methords to increase the number of people who read them, including the use of colour, competitions and national bingo games.

Running a newspaper is an expensive and competitive business and several newspapers started and .failed during the 1980s. Me

2.3 Radio and Television

Broadcasting in the United Kingdom is controlled by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). The BBC receives its income from the government, but the private companies controlled by the IBA earn money from advertising.

BBC Radio broadcasts five national services to the United Kingdom plus regional services in Wales (ineluding programmes in Welsh), Scotland and Northern Ireland. These are:

Radio 1: pop and rock music;

Radio 2: light music, drama, documentaries and sport;

Radio 3: classical music, drama, documentaries and cricket;

Radio 4: news, documentaries, drama

and entertainment and educational programmes for schools and adults;

Radio 5: sport, educational programmes and children's programmes.

There are also thirty-two BBC Local Radio stations and a number of independent local stations. There is advertising on the independent commercial channels. -The External Service of the BBC broadcasts over 700 hours of programmes a week in 37 languages, including the English-language World Service and BBC English by Radio and Television. It is estimated that over 120 million people listen to the service.

Watching television is one of the great British pastimes! By the middle of the 1980s there were four channels on British TV: BBC1 and BBC2 plus the two independent channels, ITV and Channel 4. Independent channels get their income from advertisements but there is no advertising on the BBC channels: instead the BBC's revenue comes from licence fees, payable by everybody who has a television, plus some additional funds from Parliament. Both the BBC and ITV sell programmes overseas which adds to their revenue.

The BBC is incorporated under a Royal Charter, which means it is a state organization but not government controlled. The first television broadcasts began in 1936. The Independent Television Authority was created by Act of Parliament in 1954 to provide an additional television broadcasting service. Commercial television consists of fifteen ITV programme companies providing programmes in fourteen different regions. An increasing number of programmes are now made by independent production companies. A second BBC channel (BBC2) began broadcasting in

1964 and a second commercial channel (Channel 4) in 1982.

Channels are generally expected to provide programmes which do not overlap with other channel's productions and there is a Broadcasting Standards Council which is designed to make sure that unsuitable programmes are not shown.

In general, people think the programmes offered on British television are of a very high standard. Some people, however, are becoming worried about the amount of violence on TV, and the effect this may have on young people.

TV and radio are also two of the main teaching channels used by the Open University. This "university of the air" allows many thousands of students to study at home for degrees they never would have obtained in the main educational system. They also have to do without sleep as most of their programmes are broadcast early in the morning or late /at night!

New technology has made it possible for viewers to receive many more programmes into their homes through sattelite TV. The 1990s may well see many changes in British TV and Radio.

Who watches what?

One of the biggest changes in the way people in Britain have spent their leisure time in recent years has been the increase in the amount of time spent watching television. The average winter viewing figures are now about twenty-eight hours per week.

As you might expect, television viewing is less popular in summer than in winter and more popular with old people than with any other age group. Viewing also aries according to social class, with professional and managerial classes watching less than the unskilled and the unemployed. On average, women watch more than men.

British TV has an international reputation for producing programmes of a high quality such as documentaries, nature programmes, comedies and drama series and according to the government there should be a combination of "competition, quality and choice" in any plans for the future of TV. However, not everyone agrees that more TV means better TV and it has been argued that the standard of programmes may drop in the future with companies concentrating on making programmes with a mass appeal such as soap operas, quiz shows, and situation comedies. "Minority" programmes, such as many of those broadcast on BBC2 and Channel 4, might disappear.

2.4 Rock Music

When the American rock-and-roll singer Chuck „Berry first sang "Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikowsky the news!" in the 1950s, he was telling the world that the new music, Rock-'n'-Roll, was here to stay. Over the last forty years it has had an enormous effect on people's lives, and especially on the kind of clothes they wear.

The first group to be seerfin the newspapers in the late 50s were the Teddy Boys. Their clothes were supposed to be similar to those worn in Edwardian England: long jackets with velvet collars, drainpipe trousers (so tight they looked like drainpipes!) and brightly coloured socks. Their shoes had very thick rubber soles and their hair was swept upwards and backwards. Before the arrival of the Teddy Boys young people had usually worn what their parents wore. Now they wore what they liked.

In the mid 60s the Mods, (so called because of their "modern" style of dressing) became the new leaders of teenage fashion. Short hair and smart suits were popular again. But perhaps the Mods' most important possessions were their scooters, usually decorated with large numbers of lights and mirrors. They wore long green anoraks, called parkas, to protect their clothes.

The Mods' greatest enemies were the Rockers who despised the Mods' scooters and smart clothes. Like the Teds, Rockers listened mostly to rock-and-roll and had no time for Mod bands.

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6