"There was a crooked man
Who walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked six-pence
Upon a crooked style.
He bought a crooked cat
Who caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together
In a crooked little house."
Day One. So, why was I spending December 31st on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean toasting the New Year with fellow passengers from a miniature plastic goblet of champaigne--on my way to England for going on two weeks? Well, . . . the plane tickets were cheap, for one thing. There would be no crowds (a huge draw in itself), and I might even be able to enjoy holiday decorations that should still be decorating the English countryside at least until Twelfth Night. My main purpose, however, was to explore the English countryside from a Children's Literature perspective. And I now share the results of that journey with you.
One flight through the night crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and several movies later, my husband and I arrived at Heathrow Airport, tired and cramped, but breakfasted and ready to pick up our rental auto. Our normal preference when visiting Europe is to travel by train. Trains are usually frequent and often and visit the smallest of towns--and are much better for the environment; but this time around we had decided to first travel to the less accessible places by car since it was winter, and trains, ferries, etc. would be less frequent than during tourist season. Our last few days in the London area we would travel by the London Underground, or the Tube as it is often called, as well as by bus and train. Although we would undoubtedly do some of the normal tourist activities, my hope was that every day we would be able to visit at least one or two sites or collections significant to the Children's Literature field.
Literally out of the airport gate, we headed straight for the Cots
wold region of England, with its gentle green hills, rushing streams, mix of deciduous woods and patchwork quilted fields edged in hedgerows, and its distinctive high plateaus known as
wolds. We lingered in several of its villages with their sandstone buildings reflecting the golden glow of the weak January sunlight, still remarkably green, despite this darkest time of year (shown left). We relaxed that first day: wandered through after Christmas sales, explored used bookstores and lingered over hot drinks in the local pub. I celebrated having a husband that enjoys driving enough to view driving on the left as a pleasant challenge. My job was to navigate our choice of destinations; and so we checked out a group of villages with other-wordly names such as Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Campden, or Chipping Norton, each of these villages just a few kilometers of pristine countryside from the next. One particularly quaint village was B
ourton-on-the-Water, bisected by the River Windrush that is crossed by many picturesque low stone pedestrian bridges.
We became reacquainted with the British use of roundabouts on their country highways--a road feature never fully understood by U.S. Citizens, due to their limited use here--used some in New England--but a feature to which we had become accustomed and liked (from previous trips to the U.K.), since one didn't have to constantly stop at lights, and if you missed a turn, you would just come around to that turn again--they seemed a logical use of a small amount of space compared to the much larger cloverleafs often used on the other side of the Atlantic.
One of the villages we vis
ited, Bibury, judged by Pre-
Raphaelite Artist/Designer and book illustrator/designer William Morris (1834-1896) as the "most beautiful" English village, was unquestionably charming, as was Broadway, another village admired by Morris (left,
The Complete Canterbury Tales, exquisitely designed inside and out by Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Below, Morris picture). In fact, Morris' open admiration for the C
otswold's in the 19th century led to an invasion by artists from that time onward. Morris himself attended nearby Oxford and lived in Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswolds from 1871 until his death. While Cotswold towns were often lively , they were not crowded with tourists at all during this time of year (they often are so overwhelmed during summer holiday as to make tourist books suggest avoiding them altogether). Village activity during our visit was generated by the locals who would hike from village to village along public footpaths or right-of-way, crossing
fields, climbing or passing through "crooked styles" (shown left, one of many styles of a "style" or kissing gate), ending up in a favorit
e pub for the evening. It was inspiring to watch whole groups hiking in their Wellington Boots, hiking sticks and overcoats. "We have got to do one of these hikes," I told my husband immediately (moi, shown above left, next to a public footpath sign). And if, when you visit England, you, too, are interested, you can easily hike the multitude of public paths that are clearly marked and crisscross the country, since brochures with maps and directions to the many paths are available at Tourist Information sites, and several helpful websites exist on the subject, such as:
http://www.ramblers.org.uk/footpaths/ . And,
if you didn't bring Wellingtons, they're reasonably priced and in practically every store you enter (You can even book entire walking tours).
For a map of the Cotswolds and a list of attractions visit
http://www.britainexpress.com/Where_to_go_in_Britain/Maps/Cotswolds.htm
You cannot help but feel, as you stride along over field, through wood and over stream, breathing great gulps of bracing air (remember, it
is January) as you absorb the beauty of the English countryside, that this is the land of Kenneth
Grahame (1879-1976, pictured right) and of his 1908 classic
The Wind and the Willows (first edition pictured left). This is the land of Mole and Water Rat, B
adger and Mr. Toad of Toad Hall as Ernest Shepar
d (below) envisioned them for us, or as A. A. Milne (portrait shown right) adapted to stage for us in
Toad of Toad Hall. Curiously, E. H. Shepard was born not a 1/2 mile from A. A. Milne in St. John's Wood, London. To be continued . . . I'll wait to discuss that subject further until our days in Oxford and London are recounted (Shepard's illustrations were apparently approved and authorized by Grahame, though Grahame died before their completion and publication in 1931. E. H. Shepard's grave at Lodsworth Church, shown above left. Mr. Toad sketch left). ).
One interesting interconnection between the Milne and Shepard families, however, is that Shepard's two children, Graham and Mary, accompanied Shepard in 1926 on his sketching trips to A. A. Milne's home in the Ashdown Forest, Sussex, where the children played with Christopher Robbin. According to
The Independent (as quoted in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), Mary felt that Christopher reacted as though he had never known "anyone older than himself actually playing games with him." What makes this interesting is that Mary Shepard (who would have been 17 years old at the time of those sketching trips) is also a well-known illustrator in the Children's Book field. Mary Shepard trained under Henry Tonks and Randolph Schwabe in London. She worked as an artist, had two exhibitions in London, and won a prize for etching in Paris.
Making Connections:
About Mary Shepard
. Mary (1909-2000) is best remembered for her
illustrations for P. L. Travers'
Mary Poppins classic children's books . When Pamela Travers, a then unknown Australian author, had her novel
Mary Poppins accepted for publication, she and her publisher, Gerald Howe, hoped that E. H. Shepard would be its illustrator, but he had too much of a workload at the time. P. L. Travers saw a Christmas card that Mary Shepard, then aged 23, had designed, and chose her to illustrate the book. P. L. Travers was quite particularly about the illustrations, insisting that the images of Poppins resemble a peg doll she had owned as a child and "have no figure" (
Daily Telegraph). Mary Shepard's illustrations of Mary Poppins helped quintessentially define the character, and she subsequently illustrated all of the Mary Poppins books through the final
Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane (1982). Mary Shepard went on to marry an editor of Punch, Edmund George Valpy Knox (1881-1971) and, although she had no children of her own, became a second mother to her two stepchildren, Rawle Knox, a journalist, and Penelope Fitzgerald, a well-known and award-winning novelist. They lived in St. John's Wood, London where, during the Second World War she was an air-raid warden, kept poultry, and had a Victory Garden. After the war her family moved to Hampstead.
About P. L. Travers. Helen Lyndon Goff (1899-1996), pseudonym P. L. Travers for Pamela Lyndon Travers, was one of three children born in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia to Travers Robert Goff, a London-born bank manager, and Margaret Morehead. To read about a Mary Poppins
Festival that has been started in her honor there, visit http://www.abc.net.au/widebay/
stories/s2047870.htm. In 1
924, P. L. Travers traveled to London, where she published poems in the Irish Statesman at the encouragement of editor, George Russell, traveled to Fontainebleau near Paris where she became a follower of Russian occultist George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, and to Switzerland to explore the teachings of psychologist Carl Jung. In the 1930s she lived in London and, at Pound Cottage, Mayfield, near Tunbridge Wells, worked as a drama critic and became close friends with George Russell and met poet William Butler Yeats. Travers' first book on Mary Poppins was published in 1934. It was translated into over 20 languages and became an instant classic of children's literature, although Travers disputed this
labeling of her Mary Poppin's novels as being exclusively for children. Goff led a private life and once said that she "most identified with Anonymous as a writer" (http://www.oxforddnb. com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/ view/article/62619). When asked
about her inspiration for her iconic Mary Poppins character, she asserted, "I never for one moment believed that I invented her. Perhaps she invented me" (Bergsten, 71). She never married, but did adopt a son, Dublin-born John Camillus Hone (b. 1939), son of Nathaniel and Biddy Hone and descendant of the 18th-century
painter Nathaniel Hone. Goff left for the United States in 1940 and lived there as a wartime evacuee until 1945. While there she traveled west by invitation of friend, John Collier, an administrator for Indian affairs, and stayed at a
number of Navaho, Hopi, and Pueblo reservations. Before leaving, she felt honored to be awarded a secret Pueblo name. Travers continued to publish stories, novels and essays. In 1964, Mary Poppins was adapted to a highly
successful Walt Disney movie starring Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. Travers was not particularly pleased with the final product despite its success. From 1965 to 1977 again lived in the U.S. while working as a writer-in-residence at Radcliffe College and Smith College in Massachusetts, and as a Clark lecturer at Scripps College in Claremont, California. From 1976 until her death, Goff was a contributing editor to the American Journal,
Parabola: the Magazine of Myth and Tradition. In fact, her last published book is a collection of essays from that Journal and is entitled,
What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Story, published in 1989. She died at her home at 29 Shawfield Street, Chelsea, London, on 23 April 1996, St. George's Day. At her request, the final resting place for her ashes remains unknown as she did not want the location to become a shrine for Mary Poppins fans.
The Mary Poppins Books: Mary Poppins, 1934; Revised Bad Tuesday Chapter; Mary Poppins Comes Back, 1935; Mary Poppins Opens the Door, 1943: Mary Poppins in the Park, 1952; Mary Poppins From A to Z, 1962; Mary Poppins in the Kitchen, 1975; Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane, 1982; Mary Poppins and the House Next Door, 1988.
Day 2.
Chester & the Birthplaces of Lewis Carroll & Randolph Caldecott
With plans to return to the Cotswold's and the Oxford area later in the trip, we set off on Day 2 for the North Country (bottom of map left) to visit a couple of birthplaces of two icons in the children's literature field near Chester, England near the border o
f Wales, 200 miles north of London and about 20 miles just south of Liverpool. Chester is a medieval walled city in the northwest of England (City Hall, pictured left, you can see it, the wall and the towering cathedral in the print of the city above). The entire city is a World Heritage Site as an excellent example of a walled city that has spanned several civilizations, is still intact and has been continuously inhabited. The Romans first built
a walled fort city there in A.D. 79 in the area of the Cornovii tribe (Iron Age tribe whose name perhaps means "people of the horn"), so parts of its wall are Roman, although much of the wall has been rebuilt. Chester also boasts a Roman forum and an amphitheatre (pictured left) that is currently an archeological dig s
ite. The city is surrounded by the River Dee estuary and still-functioning canals; and, upon our arrival and check-in to a conveniently located Victorian era hotel by the North City Gates, the first thing we did was to walk the 2 mile circuit at the top of the city wall, an exercise that afforded an inspiring view of the city. The wall has intermittent watch towers and stairs to the top of the wall, which has a walkway-width path popular with joggers as well as tourists (below, East Gate & East Gate Clock on top of wall). After an early dinner in a small Cafe, we explored an example of an early shopping mall--designed in the Victorian Era in Tudor style multi-level half-timbered structures with an actual two level balconied-shopping arcade design. The shopping arcade is still vibrant and very much in use, and, as it was still decorated in festive holiday lights, we enjoyed exploring it and the Cathedral, which had a memorial to Randolph Caldecott located in the North Transcept (memorial shown below, a memorial is also in St. Paul's Cathedral Crypt in London designed by Sir Alfred Gilbert, and as does a cemetery in St. Augustine Florida, where Caldecott died while in the U.S. in 1886, when he was not yet 40 years old).
It was time,
however, to search for Randolph Caldecott's birthplace (pictured right). The local library (located next to the magnificent Town Hall and across from the Cathedral in the center of the walled city) had a collection of his illustrated picture books, and also helpfully provided us with a street address. His house used to have been numbered #150 Bridge Street--however, there the problems began. Bridge Street had been sectioned into Upper and Lower Bridge Streets at some point since that time and the buildings along it had been renumbered as well. Consequently, we spent quite a bit of time trying to find his home's new number, #16, to no avail. We almost gave up, taking pictures of several building site possibilities and deciding that I could sort out the correct one later after more research. 
Curiously, when asking residents for help with directions (as I have just been doing in this picture, left), many people had no idea who Randolph Caldecott was at all. It felt a bit like people who live in NYC never visiting the Statue of Libery. Caldecott is so well-known in the United States, in part, perhaps, because such a significant award as the Caldecott Award, presented by the American Library Association yearly to the artist of the most distinguished American picturebook, is named for him (For information about the award and current and past winners, visit http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal.cfm). It was almost inconceivable to me that Caldecott's birthplace would not be clearly marked with street signs and on tourist maps (altho
ugh, come to think of it, just a few years ago here in the United States, a Super Walmart was almost built on George Washington's boyhood ferry farm). Still, we could not find #16 Upper Bridge Street (formerly numbered 150), try as we might.
Finally, a gentleman in a travel bureau suggested that I try higher on the street, past another main crossing street and much further north than we had been previously directed, in the shopping arcade area--but not to forget to climb to the second level balcony and check those shop fronts as well. Success at last! On a second-level balcony, finally, a small round metal plaque marked an empty heavily beamed store front. There was no museu
m inside, nothing to celebrate his life and art--perhaps that will change in the future as interest in children's literature sites escalates--but, even so, I was thrilled to have found his birthplace, and several teenagers sitting there talking looked on with curiousity as my husband took a picture of me standing next to the plaque. I felt a bit like a detective who had successfully solved a case despite a lack of clues.
Now, on to the next goal of the day--Lewis Carroll, a.k.a. Arthur Dodgson, author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, had been born just south of Manchester, a little east of Chester, along some country roads somewhere in Newton-on-Daresbury. Research informed me that his birthplace had burned down, but that the National Trust had just acquired the site. This information promised me another search, and I set off with relish. I was a seasoned veteran, after all. This trip should be a cinch.
I'm sure it will not surprise you that this trip was not a cinch. Well, we found Daresbury just fine, basically a pub in the middle of nowhere and the parish church at which Lewis Carroll's Grandfather preached, right away--but Carroll's birthplace--now
here to be found. We followed the directions, but the directions were not correct. So we asked. Then, followed those directions, but they didn't seem to be right either. Consequently, we wandered around for awhile and retraced our steps a couple of times--until, finally, I decided to turn around and take a picture of the Parish Church and leave it at that. "Pull over there and turn around," I instructed my unusually patient husband, "I give up." Obediently, he swung the car into a side lane to turn it around, and then, "Wait!" There, immediately in front of us, was a farm gate and a sign that this was Lewis Carroll's birthplace. We seemed to have this trend going that we should just look for a site until we gave up, and it would be right where we gave up--another one of Murphy's Laws, I supposed. From the sign, we had to walk down a country lane edging a field first, but, finally, there it was, just the foundations of the Dodgson's farmhouse and some instructional signs on a large green lot in the midst of brown dormant fi
elds. One could see the remains of a well and a stable room attached to the home's stone foundation. That was all.--But I danced around that foundation because we had once again found our destination once again. I will write the correct instructions below for those who, in the near future, wish to retrace my steps--because the directions you find elsewhere are impossible to follow, if not completely wrong. But I will save a discussion of Lewis Carroll until later, when we visit Oxford, because so much of his creative process evolved there. However, to see Lewis Carroll's original book, hand-created, Alice's Adventures Underground, you can visit the British Library's on-line gallery where you almost feel as though you are holding the books, because you can turn the pages, listen to commentary and zoom in on details at: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html.
Correct Directions to Lewis Carroll's birthplace site: Drive straight through Daresbury down about 1 mile and turn a sharp left onto Newton Lane. Follow it curving around over a motorway overpass bridge and come to a T in the road. Turn left, then a sharp right (Newton Lane markings continue), and turn right at the next T in the road onto Grimpsditch Lane. About 1 mile down on the right is a National Trust Marker pointing out a grassy lane that leads to the stone foundations of the Dodgson's homestead inside a fenced-in area, along with some informational signs. Perhaps in the near future the National Trust will do more with this site as they have just recently acquired it.
Some fine Alice in Wonderland stained glass windows can also be seen in that immediate area. For a full discussion with images of the Alice in Wonderland stained glass in the Daresbury All Saints Church, Arthur Dodgson's parish church (see detail and windows below) near his birthplace, visit: www.krepcio.com/vitreosity/archives/ cat_sg_websites.html&h=356&w=600&sz=144&hl= n&start=76&um=1&tbnid=9joipzh4nolzbM:&tbnh =80&tbnw=135&prev=/ images%3Fq%3Dlewis %2Bcarroll%2B%2526%2Bimage%26start%3D 60%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3 D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive %26rls%3DDGUS,DGUS:2006-22,DGUS:en%26sa%3DN.
Connections:
Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886) was one a triumvirate of exceptional Children's Book illustrators of the late Victorian period consisting of Caldecott, Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway, all of whom knew one another and were probably informed by one another's styles, to a degree, and 
all of whom were encouraged and published by Edmund Evans. Walter Crane (pictured right) is remembered for his exceptional overall page and book designs influenced, no doubt, by t
he Pre-Raphaelite's appreciation for medieval art and layout, that 
cohesively supported his distinctive illustrations and his support for full-color picture books (Crane's ABC book cover and inside spread above left). Kate Greenaway's illustrations focused on beautiful Victorian children (Greenaway illustration, left) and there is now an award for children's book illlustration in the U.K. titled the Kate Greenaway Award, similar to the Caldecott Medal in the U.S. To check out details about the award and current and past winners, visit http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway/. Randolph Caldecott introduced the lively illustration full of motion and vitality in his comic, light-hearted images. His illustrations did not appear posed. They were filled with the animals and landscapes of the Chester area from which he hailed, and Caldecott preferred to execute his line drawings in sepia ink. He changed the proportion of text to pictures, sometimes just using three or four words to a page with a large illustration. He may have been the 
first to have the illustration fill in what the text leaves out and the text add to what the illustration leaves out--an important concept behind what exactly makes a picture book a picture book. These two scenes to the left are part of one of the first two books Caldecott published with Edmund Evans in 1878, John Gilpin, of which the cover is shown above.
Evans on Caldecott's working style: "Shilling Toy Books, at that time, generally had blank pages at the back of the pictures: I proposed to have no blanks at all in these books: these slight illustrations were little more than outlines, but were so racy and spontaneous, R. C. generally drew them from his friend where a man was wanted: His cats, dogs, showed how thoroughly he understood the anatomy of them. If the sketches came all right - he let them pass - if he was not satisfied with the results he generally tore them up and burned them" (as quoted in Engen, and at http://www.iupui.edu/~engwft/caldecott.htm).
In his Prophets Priests and Kings (London: Alston Rivers, 1908, p 327), A. G. Gardiner, editor of the Daily News, showed his appreciation of the importance of Caldecott's illustrations by quoting some poetic lines G. K. Chesterton had penned in "a book of Caldecott's pictures to a little friend of mine--
"This is the sort of book we like
(For you and I are very small),
With pictures stuck in anyhow,
And hardly any words at all.
. . .
You will not understand a word
Of all the words, including mine;
Never you trouble; you can see,
And all directness is divine--
Stand up and keep your childishness:
Read all the pedants' screeds and strictures;
But don't believe in anything
That can't be told in coloured pictures."
Sources:
http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/view/article/74628.
Alton, Anne Hiebert. http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/view/article/62619.
The Times (20 Oct 2000)
The Independent (29 Sept 2000)
Daily Telegraph (26 Sept 2000)
A. Herne, The dictionary of 20th century book illustr
ators (1995)
Day 3. Liverpool & Manchester. Beatles, Libraries & Art.
While I have to admit that my stay in Liverpool really had little to do with children's literature, or even with the Beatles I was sure I could find subjects that 
could inform my interest in Children's Literature & Art .... and Liverpool appealed to the urban planner in me, and I was drawn by its efforts to reinvent itself. Spending the night in Liverpool, after checking into a renovated small Georgian hotel called The Feathers Inn (the best we had stayed at thus far on our journey) in downtown Liverpool near the cathedrals and the pedestrian mall, we enjoyed a stroll down the lively pedestrian mall to the Albert Dock area. This warehouse dockside harbor was first opened in 1846 and named for Prince Albert, who dedicated the dock. The seven acre site was used to store products from the far east, such as silks, tobacco, tea and spirits. Although the entire complex was registered in 1952 for having the largest group of Grade 1 listed buildings in Britain, it still fell into disrepair and finally closed in 1972. However, 1981 riots spurred a dramatic rebirth as government support and funding supported inner-city redevelopment projects. Designated as the
European Capital of Culture 2008, the entire area is undergoing a Renaissance, and urban revitalization efforts are evident everywhere you turn.
The TATE MUSEUM (http://www.tate.org.uk/)houses British art from 1500 and international modern art from the 1900s, and has branches at four locations in England. The museum has an excellent website and you can search their archives for artists' works to view on-line at http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/QuickSearch. I was able to find some Randolph Caldecott selections, several John Ruskin pieces, the Dalziel brother's work is represented, a solid collection of Beatrix Potter, a Thomas Bewick, a Walter Crane, a strong collection of Edward Burne-Jones' work, a John Tenniel, and a few Arthur Rackham pieces--and undoubtedly there are others. The TATE actually has the most complete collections of Turner's anywhere in the world, I believe.
The British Tate Museum Liverpool anchors the restored Albert Dock area and is located in the renovated brick warehouse building pictured above. While we were there we were able to see an ongoing exhibition, the DLA 
Piper Series entitled The Twent
ieth
Century: How It Looked & How It Felt, with many fine examples of modern art. This series is running through April of 2009. You can see some of the pieces displayed at http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/the-twentieth-century/guide.shtm. In the two pieces pictured above, one by Robert Delaunay titled Windows Open Simultaneously (First Part, Third Motif) created in 1912 (left), and Picasso's Weeping Woman (right) one sees hints of the evolution in children's picture books many decades later as the 20th century closed its doors with the advent of books with post-modern narrative, illustration and design in such groundbreakers as The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales among others. It obviously took time for this 
sort of experimentation to impact children's literary book illustration, design and publishing. Undoubtedly, the advent of new technology that has made experimentation easier, such as digital typography, as well as digital photography, scanning and printing, has contributed in part to the suddent spurt in this kind of approach as well.
Liverpool boasts the most theatres and museums after London--so it is an excellent destination spot for culture. Liverpool is also a World Heritage Site, with more authentic Georgian buildings than Bath, England. Sports is important here, and a new stadium is being built by the newly redeveloped Albert Docks, formed around water in an interesting 
square full of restaurants and shops in restored buildings. Naturally, we had a strong interest in Beatles tours as well 
while in Liverpool. Its musical roots are reflected in the street sculpture I came across (shown left) of beaten up old guitars and suitcases surrounding what I can only assume might be a prime spot for street musicians during tourist season (left, Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show, "Paul McCartney lived here & Beatles practiced here" house (below). It's hard not to develop such an interest when there is even a "Penny Lane" city bus showing up at bus stops now and again. It is quite easy to take a Beatles tour in this, the city of their 
origin. Just visit: 
http://www.beatlestours.co.uk/. A fine picture book came out recently entitled John's Secret Dreams: The Life of John Lennon, by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier, pictures by Bryan Collier. The book has a 
compelling cover design, with the title reflected backwards in John's memorable wire-rimmed glasses. The narrative makes strong use of image and the lyrics of John's songs to tell his story.
We also took time to visit two distinctive cathedrals in Liverpool that were
within walking distance of our hotel. Connected by Hope Street, these two cathedrals display dramatically diverse architectural styles. The Catholic Cathedral was begun before the World War II, and its crypt was built in the traditional vaulted style. Above ground, however, is a different story. Completed after WWII (consecrated 1967), a dramatically different approach and very modern style was finally decided upon, and the outline of this cathedral against the night sky looks like some sort of space ship. Inside,
however, the modern
stained glass and circular seating has a very serene feel.
Down the street, the Anglican Cathedral is
massive. This is the fifth largest church in the world (which set me wondering what the first four on the list are), and a competition was held in 1902 to find a design for the proposed cathedral, only the third such Anglican cathedral built in England since the Reformation in the 1600s. A young 22 year old named Giles Gilbert Scott won the competition. This selection of Scott was controversial due to his young age, and one of the competition's assessors, George Bodley, was appointed to oversee the project with Scott. The decision was seen as even more controversial when it was discovered that Scott was a Roman Catholic, however, the decision stood (and, ironically, the neighboring Catholic Cathedral was designed by Anglican, Sir Edwin Lutyens). Originally proposing a two-towered plan (his original design showed right), Scott eventually settled on the one-towered plan which one sees against the skyline of Liverpool today. This single square tower is quite unusual looking as the largest and one of the highest bell towers in
the world, and it houses the highest and heaviest set of pealing bells in the world. The feeling of uniqueness of this cathedral is enhanced by the
below-church-level gardens and cemetary that have a green and serene almost u
nder-wordly feel as one walks around the base of the cathedral at a quite dramatically lower level.
Giles Gilbert Scott is remembered for another reason--he is the designer of the traditional iconic red British phone booth--both the k2 design of 1924 and the more famous k6 design that was introduced for the Jubilee Year in 1935, and various models of them can be purchased in the cathedral store. Looking at the solid shape of the phone booth next to the tall square tower of his cathedral--they look a bit like one another.
But it was time to be on to the North Country with a stop in Manchester to view the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, 
Chetham Library, located on the banks of the River Irwell on Long Millgate. This library was founded in 1653 in a medieval complex that dates from 1421 (a corner of which is shown above). Many of the library's books date from the 1500s and 1600s and admission is free Monday th
rough Friday, 9:30 to 4:30 (with break for lunch). For more information, call 0161-834-7961.
John Ruskin's home is also in the area (above) and overlooks Coniston Water. Ruskin added the windowed turret you can see in the photo, from which he enjoyed panoramic views of the Water. He was visited in this house by many literary notables of his day, including K
ate Greenaway (and others, including Charles Darwin).
John Ruskin--friend to Lewis Carroll, art critic, social critic and influencer of the pre-Raphaelites, wrote the early fantasy,
, a literary folk/fairytale, and one of the earliest that was written specifically for a child (
Effie Gray, age 12, whom Ruskin later married and then . . . well, that's another story entirely). With illustrations by Richard Doyle (Doyle's first free-lance contract) that were hand-colored by Edmund Evans, this book proved to be immediately popular and went through three editions within its first year of publication in 1851. Doyle's interpretation of the Southwest Wind's extremely protuding nose apparently drew some objections and Ruskin insisted that Doyle tone the noses in three of his illustrations down for the third edition--although several other phallic-like pointed objects within these illustrations are still evident in
this reprint of a Doyle illustration from the third edition.
Richard "Dickie" Doyle (1824-1883) was perhaps best remembered for his beautiful green-cloth-bound volume,
by Edmund Evans, and described as one of the finest examples of Victorian book production by Richard Dalby in
(1991, p 12).
Ruskin was a rather distinctive artist himself and has a college at Oxford named after him. Look for this quote in the golden stones of Oxford when you are there: "Every noble life leaves the fibre of it interwoven forever in the work of the world." Powerful thought by Ruskin.
A fantastic site to help plan holidays anywhere in Great Britain can be found at:
Lewis Carroll (shown below from a portrait hanging in the Dining Hall of Christ Church College) is the pen name of Chalres Dodgson, a mathematics tutor at Christ Church from 1855 to 1898.
While there, he befriended the small daughters of Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church--and one of Dean Liddell's daughters was named, yes, you guessed it, Alice. She came to Christ Church about the age of 3 when her father became Dean there. The now famous
grew out of tales that the shy Charles Dodgson told the Liddell sisters, Lorina, Alice and Edith, especially on one particular summer's day outing while he and a friend rowed the young girls up the nearby river. Little Alice requested that Charles make his story into a book. He did so, entitling it
and presented it to the Liddell sisters for Christmas a couple of years later. You can view this original version of Lewis Carroll's classic and actually turn the pages of the book at the British Library Turning the Pages site at http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/alice/--comp
lete with Carroll's original sketches for the book, that one can easily see must have influenced the later published version illustrated by noted illustrator John Tenniel. Lewis Carroll's apartment was near Big Tom, the bell that historically has rung every evening, one ring for each student in Christ Church College, and the students would have to be in their rooms by the end of its toll. Lewis Carroll used to like to watch the students rushing to get back to their rooms while Big Tom was ringing. In the Dining Hall of Christ Church, as one faces the front of this great hall, there are three long dining tables illuminated by the soft glow of desk lamps. At the front of the hall is a platform and a long horizontal table upon which the dignitaries of the college would eat every day, Dean Liddell among them, often with 3 year old Alice playing about his feet, according
to our tour guide. Unnoticed in the left back corner of the podium, built into the dark wood raised paneling of the hall is a small door that disguises a narow iral staircase that leads down and out of the dining hall. It is said that Dean Liddell is Lewis Carroll's inspiration for the White Rabbit, for, when dinner was done and little Alice was quite bored, first her father and then she would disappear down "the rabbit hole" of this hidden circular staircase. Halfway down the great hall on both sides are two great stone fireplaces. The fifth stained-glass window in a row of them that happens to be above the left fireplace displays a picture of the original Alice Liddell and many of the characters from
. In front of the right fireplace on the opposite side of the room are a tall pair of old andirons with faces in them and very long necks--inspiration, supposedly for the scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice's neck grows very long.
If you are anywhere near the Roanoke Valley, you must not miss a visit to the historic downtown city of Roanoke and to
n is by Kent Stephens, with music by Gary Rue. This book is filled with deconstructed fairy tales. The Stinky Cheese Man is a perversion, of course, of the Gingerbread Boy. The Ugly Duckling who grows up to be a really ugly Duck, is a perversion of Danish authorHans Christian Anderson's tale, and so on. The book, with its postmodern book design and funky typography is a favorite of both mine and of my children, and if Mill Mountain brings half of the irreverant fun of the book to the stage, it should be a great success.
For more information and ticket reservations, visit: http://www.millmountain.org/stinkycheese.html.
April 16th through the 27th, 2008, the Trinkle Main Stage will feature another much more ancient classic that has been embraced by children for centuries: Tales From the Arabian Nights, adapted by Michael Bigelow Dixon and Jan Cole. A show that promises not only the well-loved tale of Scheherazade and her 1001 never quite-finished tales to stave off the death sentence of her Sultan, but song and exotic dance. Tickets are $15-$10, and for more information, you may visit: http://www.millmountain.org/tfan.html.
April 16th through the 27th, 2008, the Trinkle Main Stage will feature another much more ancient classic that has been embraced by children for centuries: Tales From the Arabian Nights, adapted by Michael Bigelow Dixon and Jan Cole. A show that promises not only the well-loved tale of Scheherazade and her 1001 never quite-finished tales to stave off the death sentence of her Sultan, but song and exotic dance. Tickets are $15-$10, and for more information, you may visit: http://www.millmountain.org/tfan.html.
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