How Can We Speak the Same Language (Sort of) and Be So Different...

Lovely cool day for our last full day in Britian!  We decided to take a day trip to Salisbury, have a real English tea, soak up the atmosphere one last time.  On the tea, you need to prepare.  So we skipped lunch and decided to skip supper.  See, tea comes at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Now, it consists of little sandwiches with things like cucumbers, salmon, egg salad.  Then it goes on to scones with clotted cream and jam.  Not done yet.  It finishes with lots (and I do mean LOTS) of little cakes, cookies, candies, frosted things, etc.  No way you can eat supper after that.  Oh yes.  There is also tea. But you almost don't notice the tea part!  Actually, our waitress had to bag up part of the tea "if we get hungry later tonight."  I wonder:  how could one indulge in "tea" and then, a few hours later, have a dinner??  And dinner here takes a very long time.  And even "pre-dinner" (which is cocktail time) takes a long time!  Last night we didn't know about the pre-dinner thing, so we marched into the dining room and it threw the entire staff off for the whole night!!

BUT we did drive to Salisbury and it was so worthwhile.  They have one of only four copies of the original Magna Carta, signed and sealed by King John.  What we learned (and we are always learning) is that he wanted to repeal it right away and the Pope gave him dispensation to repeal it.  But he died before he could do it from dysentery. Do you think God was telling him NOT to repeal??

While that is interesting, here are the REALLY interesting parts: (and our constitution is based on parts of this!)

(1)  The King couldn't take away a minor kid's lands and inheritances when his parents died. Often the King would give the kid and the wealth to a buddy of his, making the buddy rich and the kid a dependent with nothing. 

(2)  Every man, if he was accused of a crime, had to have a speedy trial, with a jury of his peers and the punishment had to fit the crime.

(3)  The King couldn't force a widow into marrying someone when her spouse died.  She could keep her lands and stay single, if she wanted to;

(4) The right to justice cannot be denied

(5) No fines or punishments could be such that an accused person would be denied his livelihood (like his tools, horses, etc)

(6) The church was totally separate from the king. (Note that this set up a future battle between king and church for riches, settled by Henry VIII, when he took over the church and became its head;

Oldest working clock
in England (1328 bell
chime drive)

All in all, it was and still is the basis for laws in many countries, where it was used as framework. The cathedral itself was magnificent and is one of the oldest in Britian.  The Romans, the Normans, the Picts, they all had religious spots here.  And, as you wander through it, you can see the history of Great Britian written on its walls with memorials to dead heroes. Our country is certainly a "baby country" compared to the "Mother Country" across the Atlantic.

On our way back to the hotel, we watched large and small groups of school children, all in uniforms, walking to their homes.  Obviously, there are no busses.  And parents feel comfortable enough to allow their offspring to walk to and from school!  So different than the states, where we have busses, parents even picking kids up from the buss stops!!.  

Model of Cathedral construction

New friends (rescue dogs)

As a matter of fact, Brits walk everywhere. Even people with walkers!  All ages are hoofing it in every direction, with shopping bags over their arms.  Made me feel really guilty at how soft we've all become!!  In the meantime we are watching a 'hot" match of croquet off our patio!  So much fun to see!!! This is another very British activity.  And I also noticed that Bos is saying "bloody" a lot and we are calling our vacation a "holiday" and we even used "jolly good" with a guide at the cathedral.  Yikes, time to leave!

Sarcophagus of
7 Ft tall Knight!

Alter end window

Light from windows on columns.

Some more

Some history notes here about all the wars.

   

Thatch job.

Three of twelve carved ey angels in the choir,
each with a different instrument.