Trains.... (Part II)
Our trip to England was more than geography. It was history and culture. As in Salisbury.
Much of our legal system — indeed, our very basis of social structure as we know it today — was built on the foundation of a document signed in Salisbury, England in the year 1215. A group of British barons then forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, ensuring that people would be treated more fairly than had been the practice of the day. For instance, people would be guaranteed a trial, and widows could not be forced to marry.
There were originally 40 copies of the Magna Carta, which were delivered to all parts of the country, that every Englishman should know of their new rights. There are four copies left, and one is in a chapel of the Salisbury Cathedral. It is an extraordinary document certainly, and what has come after it is no less impressive.
There are many places to see the advance of Western culture, and Bath is a grand place to bear witness. One of the most beautiful cities in England, Bath is the site of the ancient Roman baths, and then the growth of English civilization through the Renaissance and beyond. The architecture is astounding, the gardens captivating.
The next stop on our trip to England was Stratford-Upon-Avon, for all things Shakespearean. Few individuals will ever mean more to civilization — especially in a positive way — than did William Shakespeare. His plays have defined much of who we are and how we think, from our loves won and labors lost, to madness and tragedy, and truly sparkling wit. It’s breathtaking to realize that he penned all of those plays, plus the glorious sonnets and so much more, in a few short decades, as he died at the young age of 52.
Much of Stratford is kitsch and hype, as one might expect. Linda and I got around much of the town on a tour bus, on which the guides talked about everything else but Shakespeare’s writing. Also, none of the three stages in Stratford was featuring anything by the Bard. In fact, one was offering "Hello, Dolly". No thank you.
The most moving visit, perhaps of our entire trip to the United Kingdom, was the Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried. Here, we could feel why we had come to Stratford. Seventeen feet beneath a stone marker in the floor in the church, lies whatever remains of a man who touched more lives than perhaps any other in history. Gives one pause, to think about what one might accomplish before it is time to shuffle off this mortal coil.
The trip continues tomorrow.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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