Weymouth, England

Apr. 15, 2023

As in previous posts, I will begin with facts about the country before turning to the city.

England is the major constituent of the United Kingdom, occupying more than half of the island of Great Britain.

The flag of England:

Outside the British Isles, England is often erroneously considered synonymous with the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and even with the entire United Kingdom, whose flag is the familiar “Union Jack.”

Despite the political, economic, and cultural legacy that has secured its name, England no longer officially exists as a governmental or political unit—unlike Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which all have varying degrees of self-government in domestic affairs. It is rare for institutions to operate for England alone. Notable exceptions are the Church of England and sports associations for cricket, rugby, and football (soccer). In many ways England has seemingly been absorbed within the larger mass of Great Britain since the Act of Union of 1707.

Laced by great rivers and small streams, England is a fertile land, and the generosity of its soil has supported a thriving agricultural economy for millennia.

In the early 19th century, England became the center of a worldwide Industrial Revolution and soon the world’s most industrialized country. Drawing resources from every settled continent, cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool converted raw materials into manufactured goods for a global market, while London, the country’s capital, emerged as one of the world’s preeminent cities and the hub of a political, economic, and cultural network that extended far beyond England’s shores.

One of the fundamental English characteristics is diversity within a small area. No place in England is more than 75 miles (120 km) from the sea, and even the farthest points in the country are no more than a day’s journey by road or rail from London. Formed of the union of small Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the early medieval period, England has long comprised several distinct regions, each different in dialect, economy, religion, and disposition; indeed, even today many English people identify themselves by the regions or shires from which they come—e.g., Yorkshire, the West Country, the Midlands—and retain strong ties to those regions even if they live elsewhere.

England is bounded on the north by Scotland; on the west by the Irish Sea, Wales, and the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the English Channel; and on the east by the North Sea.

The English language is drawn from a variety of sources. The primary source of the language is the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded and colonized England in the 5th and 6th centuries. Their language provides the most commonly used words in the modern English vocabulary.

The English have absorbed and Anglicized non-English peoples, from Scandinavian pillagers and Norman conquerors to Latin church leaders. Among royalty, a Welsh dynasty of monarchs, the Tudors, was succeeded by the Scottish Stuarts, to be followed by the Dutch William of Orange and the German Hanoverians. English became the main language for the Scots, Welsh, and Irish.

Although the Church of England is formally established as the official church, with the monarch at its head, England is a highly secularized country. There is virtually complete religious tolerance in England and no longer any overt prejudice against Catholics. Some churches—most notably those associated with the Evangelical movement—have small but growing memberships. There are also large communities of Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and Hindus.

The visual impact of a mostly green and pleasant land can be seriously misleading. England is primarily an industrial country, built up during the Industrial Revolution by exploitation of the coalfields and cheap labor, especially in the cotton-textile areas of Lancashire, the woolen-textile areas of Yorkshire, and the coal-mining, metalworking, and engineering centres of the Midlands and the North East.

The South West, our destination, contains the last Celtic stronghold in England, Cornwall, where a Celtic language was spoken until the 18th century. Farther east are the city of Bristol and the counties of Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire. The last is famous for the prehistoric stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury. (More about Stonehenge later.)

The physical environment and natural resources of England are more favourable to agricultural development than those of other parts of the United Kingdom. A greater proportion of the land consists of lowlands with good soils where the climate is conducive to grass or crop growing. The majority of English farms are small, most holdings being less than 250 acres. Nonetheless, they are highly mechanized.

Financial services are central to England’s economy, especially in London and the South East. A major world center for finance, banking, and insurance, London—especially the City of London—hosts such centuries-old bodies as the Bank of England (1694), Lloyd’s (1688), and the London Stock Exchange (1773), as well as more recent arrivals.

Tourism plays a significant role in England’s economy. The country’s attractions appeal to a wide variety of interests, ranging from its rich architecture, archaeology, arts, and culture to its horticulture and scenic landscape.

England itself does not have a formal government or constitution, and a specifically English role in contemporary government and politics is hard to identify in any formal sense, for these operate on a nationwide British basis. Freedom of speech and opinion with proper opportunities for reasonable debate form part of the English tradition, but the development of party and parliamentary government in its modern forms took place after the Act of Union of 1707, when, in politics, the history of England became the history of Britain. Unlike Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, each of which has its own assembly or parliament, regional government does not exist in England.

The so-called public schools, which are actually private, are often categorized as independent schools. Although their fees were beyond the reach of all but the richest families, these schools were in principle open to the public, and the term has survived into the modern era. Important public schools for boys include Eton (the oldest; established 1440–41), Harrow, Winchester, and Westminster; notable public schools for girls include Cheltenham, Roedean, and Wycombe Abbey.

More than half of England’s young adults receive some form of postsecondary education through colleges and universities. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge date from the 12th and 13th centuries, and both have university presses that are among the oldest printing and publishing houses in the world. There are scores of universities in England, some of which are referred to as “red brick” universities.

English cuisine has traditionally been based on beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and fish, all cooked with the minimum of embellishment and generally served with potatoes and one other vegetable—or, in the case of fish (most commonly cod or haddock) deep-fried in batter and served with deep-fried potato slices (chips). Fish and chips, traditionally wrapped in old newspapers to keep warm on the journey home, has long been one of England’s most popular carryout dishes.

Now let’s talk about our excursion.

We set forward from the port of Weymouth for a two-hour drive to Stonehenge.

Weymouth consists of the port of Weymouth (the administrative center), on the English Channel, and, south of Weymouth, the peninsular Isle of Portland, which culminates in a point at the Bill of Portland.

Weymouth was popular with King George III who reigned during the American Revolution. The King was not in good health, and he visited Weymouth to immerse himself in what were thought to be healing waters. To protect the King from the eyes of the commoners an engine was built wherein he could strip naked, be wheeled into the English Channel and bathe himself. At the left is that engine:

Queen Victoria was also fond of Weymouth. This tower is dedicated to her.

The Hart Inn:

As we drove through the beautiful countryside, suddenly Stonehenge came into view. Simplicity, solitude and a powerful air of mystery surround this enigmatic and ancient circle of stones set within a grassy landscape. As we came closer, it seemed that the Druid’s magic still held sway. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I felt a mysterious fascination arising within me. Were it not for the ropes preventing us from approaching too closely, who knows what might have happened if I came forward and touched a stone? Think “Craigh na Dun,” you Outlander devotees.

Though there is no definite evidence as to the intended purpose of Stonehenge, it was presumably a religious site and an expression of the power and wealth of the chieftains, aristocrats, and priests who had it built—many of whom were buried in the numerous bronze-age barrows close by.

It was aligned on the Sun and possibly used for observing the Sun and Moon and working out the farming calendar. Or perhaps the site was dedicated to the world of the ancestors, separated from the world of the living, or was a healing center. Present-day Druids gather there every year to hail the midsummer sunrise. Looking toward the sunrise, the entrance in the northeast points over a big pillar, now leaning at an angle, called the Heel Stone. Looking the other way, it points to the midwinter sunset. The summer solstice is also celebrated there by huge crowds of visitors.

Stonehenge was built in six stages between 3000 and 1520 BCE, during the transition from the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) to the Bronze Age. As a prehistoric stone circle, it is unique because of its artificially shaped sarsen stones (blocks of Cenozoic silcrete), arranged in post-and-lintel formation, and because of the remote origin of its smaller bluestones (igneous and other rocks) from 100–150 miles away, in South Wales. The name of the monument probably derives from the Saxon stan-hengen, meaning “stone hanging” or “gallows.”

The Stonehenge that is visible today is incomplete, many of its original sarsens and bluestones having been broken up and taken away, probably during Britain’s Roman and medieval periods. The ground within the monument also has been severely disturbed, not only by the removal of the stones but also by digging since the 16th century, when historian and antiquarian William Camden noted that “ashes and pieces of burnt bone” were found. A large, deep hole was dug within the stone circle in 1620 by George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, who was looking for treasure. A century later William Stukeley surveyed Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments, but it was not until 1874–77 that Flinders Petrie made the first accurate plan of the stones. In 1877 Charles Darwin dug two holes in Stonehenge to investigate the earth-moving capabilities of earthworms. The first proper archaeological excavation was conducted in 1901 by William Gowland.

Here is a closer shot:

And yet another:

After viewing the stones, on our return to the ship, we drove through the beautiful fishing village of Weymouth. Here are some scenes of Weymouth:

A pharmacy:

A restaurant:

A typical downtown building:

A Weymouth street:

Finally, we took a short detour to view the English Channel from a nearby hill:

Tired but happy, we then made our way back to the ship.