Whiderwarde-soeuer*

*To whatever place. (Be glad I didn't write the whole thing in Middle English!)

Being in England is obviously pretty exciting for someone who studied Medieval English Literature. There's medieval stuff all over the place!

This is a pub sign in Bath.



I couldn't resist this George and the Dragon cookie tin. Shown here with George and the Dragon cookies.
And then I went to Warwick! Thursday morning, I took the train from Bristol, transferred in Birmingham and ended up in Warwick, all told about 2.5 hours. I dropped my stuff off at the Seven Stars Bed and Breakfast and went straight to Warwick Castle, (the point of my visit).

Warwick Castle in the snow


During the Wars of the Roses, Warwick Castle was home to The Kingmaker, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. He was so called because whichever side he was on during the Wars was the side that was in power (Lancastrian or Yorkist).

Warwick has a number of waxworks in the exhibits which can be a bit spooky. The Castle was pretty empty what with the snow and it being January, so much of the time I was the only one wandering around in the vicinity. So walking through these dim, low-ceilinged castle basements and coming across motionless, life -like waxworks was a bit unnerving.

They also had a cheesy sword in the stone on The Mount. The Mount is the oldest part of the castle, built in 1068 by the order of William the Conqueror.
A final cool medieval thing were the Mews. I was unfortunately too late to see the hawking exhibition but I did see the hawks in their mews. This was also exciting because of my T.H. White interest. He was very interested in falconry himself and trained a number of birds, the first one using purely medieval methods from a 15h century text (I can't verify the century as I don't have my copy of The Goshawk with me).

Here we have a golden eagle. In medieval England, the golden eagle would have been only flown by the reigning monarch.


So that was Warwick. Next stop, London town!