3. London

Now we shall speak a little about the capital of England, of its history, what was the sight of the city several centuries ago and who built it. It's political, economic and commercial centre. London is one of the largest cities in the world and the largest city in Europe.' Its population is about 8 million.

London is one of the oldest and most interesting cities in the world.

London was founded by the Romans in 43 AD. It was called Londinium. The history of London is different from the history of other great cities if the world. The splendours of Babylon and Nineveh cost little, for there were thousands of slaves to do the work for scarcely more than the cost of their food. Rome was made splendid by emperors who ruled all the known earth. They had countless slaves. They robbed every country to make their own city gorgeous, and with the great wealth of the world they built palaces and halls and theatres and circuses grander than any which have since been made. Florence was built by rulers who loved art and beauty. They lived in an age when the greatest sculptors and painters could be employed for as little cost as an ordinary workman of today.

London was a wilderness when the Romans came here. Had they stayed they would have made it a great city. But they were called home to defend their own capital, and London was burnt again and again by the rough men from over the seas. The Saxons and Danes were an uneducated people, who thought of little more than war and the chase, not of building noble cities. The Normans, who conquered England, in the eleventh century, were a more educated people, and we find traces of their buildings in London and many parts of England. But their kings were warlike men who never thought of making a beautiful London. When the tome came for giving London wealth and power, the people were too busy with trade and travel to think much of making a stately city.

It is impossible to point out all English historical buildings to be the work of this or that architect or builder. The Westminster Abbey, for instance, was begun on the site of older churches built by Edward the Confessor, who died in 1066. A foreigner, William the Conqueror, was crowned King of England the same year in the cathedral where Edward wanted to bury his own bones. During the reign of several kings the building of Westminster Abbey was continued. Sir Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723) built one of the most beautiful additions. Nearly all English kings and queens were crowned in the Abbey since the time of the Conquest, while there are buried in it thirteen kings of England and many queens.

Here is an extract from Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper":

"It was four o'clock in the morning of the memorable Coronation day. We find the torch-lighted galleries already filling up with people who are well content to sit still and wait seven or eight hours till the time shall come for them to see what they may not hope to see in their lives -- the coronation of a King. Yes, London and Westminster have been astir ever since the warning guns boomed at three o'clock, and already crowds of untitled rich folk who have bought the privilege of trying to find sitting-room in the galleries are flocking in at the entrances reserved for such as they!

The hours drag along tediously enough. All stir ceased for some time, for every gallery has long ago been packed. We may look here and there and yonder, through the dim cathedral twilight, of portions of many galleries and balconies being cut off from sight by intervening pillars and architectural projections. We have to view the whole of the great north transept -- empty, and waiting for England's privileged ones. We see also the ample area of platforms, carpeted with rich stuffs, whereupon the throne stands. The throne occupies the centre of the platform, and is raised above it upon an elevation of four steps. Within a seat of the throne is enclosed a rough flat rock -- the stone of Scone -- which many generations of Scottish kings sat on to be crowned, and so it in time became holy enough to answer a like purpose for English monarchs. Both the throne and its footstool are covered with cloth of gold.

Stillness reign, the torches blink dully, the time drags heavily. But at last the lagging daylight asserts itself, the torches are extinguished, and a mellow radiance suffers the great spaces. All features of the noble building are distinct now, but soft and dreamy, for sun is lightly veiled with clouds.

At seven o'clock the first break in the drowsy monotony occurs; for on the stroke of this hour the first peeress enters the sept, clothed like Solomon for splendour, and is conducted to her appointed place by an official clad of in satins and velvets, whilst a duplicate of him gathers up the lady's long train, follows after, and, when the lady is seated, arranges the train across her lap for her. He then places her footstool according to her desire, after which he puts her coronet where it will be convenient to her hand when the time for the simultaneous coroneting of the nobles shall arrive.

The scene is animated enough now. There is stir and life, and shifting colour everywhere. After a time quite reigns again; for the peeresses are all come, and are all in their places. There are all ages here: brown, wrinkled, white-haired dowagers, who are able to go back down the stream of time, and recall the crowning of Richard HI and the troublous days of that forgotten age; and there are handsome middle-aged dames; and lovely young matrons; and gentle and beautiful young girls with beaming eyes and fresh complexion.

About nine, the clouds suddenly break away and a shaft of sunshine cleaves the mellow atmosphere, and drifts slowly along the ranks of ladies. Presently a special envoy from some distant corner of the Orient, marching with the general body of foreign ambassadors, crosses this bar of sunshine, and we catch our breath, the glory that streams and flashes and palpitates about him is so over-. powering; for he is crusted from head to heel with gems, and his „slightest movement showers a dancing radiance all around him.

At last, the deep booming of artillery told that the King and his grand procession had arrived at last; so the waiting multitude rejoiced. All knew that a further delay must follow, for the King must be prepared and dressed for solemn ceremony. All the peers were / conducted ceremoniously to their seats and their coronets placed conveniently at hand; and meanwhile the multitude in the galleries were alive with interest, for most of them were beholding for the first time, dukes, earls, and barons, whose names had been historical for five hundred years. When all were finally seated, the spectacle from the galleries was complete.

Now the dressed and mitred great heads of the church, and their attendants, filed in upon the platform and took their appointed places; these were followed by Lord Protector and other great officials, and these again by a steel-clad detachment of the Guard.

There was a waiting pause; then, at a signal, a triumphant peal of music burst forth, and the little king, clothed in a long robe of cloth of gold, appeared at a door, and stepped upon the platform. The entire multitude rose, and the ceremony of the Recognition ensued.

At last, the final act was at hand. The Archbishop of Canterbury lifted up the crown of England from its cushion and held it out over the king's head".

Of course, Mark Twain describes the ceremony of the coronation using his own fancy, but not only that: he had read old Chronicles and followed them.

Another old historical building in London is the Tower, the oldest fortress-prison in this city and in the whole Europe. Much of the buildings which we can see today, standing in gloomy strength overlooking the Thames, has stood there almost 900 years. But under the present tower are remains of another fortress, which is a thousand years older than this.

London was always the first important place to be seized when enemies invaded the land, and the site of Tower was seen by all soldiers to be the best for defence. They say that Julius Caesar has built a fortress at this place. Certainly the White Tower is built upon Roman foundations; and remains of Roman walls are to be found in other parts of the Tower. London was often burnt and pillaged -- it was once so ruined by the Danes that the whole city was desolate, with no one living in it, for thirty years. But when people returned and the wars died down, they always gathered about the Tower as a place of defence and strength. Alfred the Great was the founder of modern London, and he is said to have built another great fortress where the Romans had first built the tower.

But it was William the Conqueror who began the Tower which is so famous today. Although he had conquered England, he felt that he would never be safe until he had built himself a great castle in which he could be surrounded by troops who would keep him safe in case the Saxons should rise in rebellion against him.

And who do you think he got to built the Tower for him? It was a monk. His name was Gundulf, and he was bom in Normandy in 1024, and was forty-six when William called him to England to begin this great work.

Gundulf was a learned man. He had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and by living in the East had learned many of secrets by which the Saracens made their buildings beautiful. Ha had closely studied the simple grandeur of Norman architecture, too, and was able to combine the two styles. He had lived many years in monasteries in Normandy. Life to him was very sad. He did not believe that Christian men ought to be happy. He was always sorrowful and when at work or at prayer, at meals or when resting, he was so often given to tears that he was called Gundulf the Weeper.

No matter how he wept, he was a great and grand builder. He founded the Tower. He made a strong fortress for his king who rewarded him by letting him build Rochester Cathedral and become the first bishop of Rochester.

He built first a great watch-tower, or barbican. From this the surrounding country could be viewed, and the approach of an enemy sighted in time to prepare for defence. That old tower is now the Hall Tower, or as it is commonly called, the Jewel Tower. In it the King keeps his crown and all the state jewels.

Another tower which Weeping Gimdulf built was the White Tower, you may still see it nowadays in good order.

Afterwards the English kings (beginning from William Rums) taxed the people without mercy to continue the work of building the Tower. The people complained that the Tower was beginning to the big and strong not for defence of London, but so that the king might have a strong place, in which to defy the people when he did wrong.

It was a strange and savage age when the Tower was rising to strength and size. An old writer says that the mortar in which the stones were set was mixed with the blood of beasts. Blood enough of human beings flowed in the Tower to make the blood of beasts unnecessary. Most of the terrible deeds of which we read in the history of England were done in the grim Tower. Though kings were bom and lived and were married there, it was in the Tower that kings and princes, and queens and princesses, were murdered; that great and good men imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes killed. Had Gundulf the Weeper known what a place of agony he was creating when he built the Tower, he would have wept still more, and with better reason.

When we speak about London of late middle ages we must, of course, remember Mark Twain's charming book "The Prince and the Pauper". The story of changing the Prince and the Pauper in only the author's imagination, but to write the story he had to read many historical books and chronicles. And here is his description of London of the period when Edward VI had to change Henry VIII, and it is indeed very truthful.

"London was fifteen hundred years old, and was a great town -- for that day. It had a hundred thousand inhabitants -- some think double as many. The streets were very narrow, and crooked, and dirty, especially in the part which was not far from London Bridge. The houses were of wood, with the second story projecting over the first, and the third sticking its elbows out beyond the second. The higher the houses grew, the broader they grew. They were skeletons of strong criss-cross beams, with solid material between, coated with plaster. The beams were painted red or blue or black, according to the owner's taste, and this give the houses a very picturesque look. The windows were small, glazed with little diamond-shaped panes, and they opened outward, on hinges, like doors".

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6