TRAVELS WITH THE WNP

IN SEARCH OF HEROES, Part V: A different view of London
By Delle Jacobs

London, for some romance authors, is the ultimate place to search for heroes. Not so for me because I'm more of a country girl. But no Regency author can possibly not go to London. And I did have heroes I wanted to find. I hope I'm providing you with some pictures you wouldn't ordinarily see. You can check out the links I'm providing for more information.

I rented rooms at the Byron Hotel, a charming Georgian townhouse like those where my heroes live. Truthfully? I picked it because of a hero - George Gordon, Lord Byron, the poet. It was nice to see the staff members were fond of him, too. I won't forget the beautiful, white-marble bust of Byron on a table by the front window. I also liked their breakfasts. Consider it if you want a nice place to stay in London.

A Regency writer must see the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, where all Regency heroes take their heroines. So that's where I met my friend and fellow Regency writer Jessica Benson for breakfast. My heroes couldn't have crossed the Serpentine Bridge, which was built later. Today, the lake has a concrete bottom and looks as man-made as it always was, but the swans and ducks don't care. If you look like a food source, they'll paddle the full length to check you out. Here's some more information on royal parks: http://www.royalparks.gov.uk/parks/hyde_park/

I rejoined my son, and we walked along Knightsbridge toward the entrance to Hyde Park. Just as we reached the gate, a mounted troop of Life Guards entered the street. Talk about heroes! These are either the Royals or the Blues - meaning the Royal Life Guards and 1st Dragoons. Their uniforms are dark blue with the red crests on their helmets. They all ride those beautiful, black horses that you just want to stop and touch. Check them out on this site: http://www.army.mod.uk/

The Duke of Wellington is at the top of my Heroes List, so I had to see the

house he bought after Waterloo. Disappointingly, our shots all turned out poorly. This famous portrait of Wellington was in such dim light that my photo needed a lot of adjusting, and it's still not very good. He wasn't exactly a handsome man, other than his fascinating eyes, and unlike Admiral Nelson, he wasn't particularly well liked. But his soldiers admired his guts, intelligence and innovation and knew he would not sacrifice them needlessly. They would have followed him anywhere.

A giant statue of a nude Napoleon (with a gorgeous body that even Napoleon said could not be his) forms a focal point of the beautiful curved staircase. My pictures of it were all fuzzy, sad to say. I wondered what Wellington was thinking to have it in

his house? He respected his enemy's genius. But Wellington was the man who defeated the man who was invincible.

My son was determined to see Shakespeare's Globe Theater replica. I said we didn't have time. But I was tired from a whirlwind two weeks, so I did give in to the double-decker bus tour despite the expense. Well, it was worth it. Admittedly, you drive by everything so fast you don't even have time to click your camera before it's out of sight, but I at least saw places I knew only from pictures. Andy snapped this pub shot of The Mudlark because that's the title of one of my books.

Check out this web site for Trafalgar Square, which we passed. Nelson's monument is 110 feet tall, the height of the main mast of his flagship, the H.M.S. Victory. Until you've seen the monument for yourself, you can't fathom how really tall it is. Nelson, who I class as the most intrepid admiral in history, is also high on my Heroes List. His amazing victory at Trafalgar, 200 years ago this last Oct. 22, also the day he died, ended Napoleon's hopes to conquer England and thus changed the course of history.

The bus tour also provides up to five guided walking tours. You just get back on another bus when you're done. Even better is an excursion boat up the Thames. My son still had the notion that we'd take the Tube to Southwark at the end of the boat ride and walk to the Globe to see Romeo and Juliet. And be in Southwark after dark? That's not the nicer side of London. But Andy's a really big guy. I started thinking about it.

Walking to the Tower of London, we passed this statue of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, reminding us that London is a city with more than 2,000 years of written history. Tiberius is not on my Heroes List, but as far as Roman Emperors go, he was better than most. The wall behind him is Roman. Only the rubble fill remains, but you can tell it's Roman by the characteristic layers of thin brick for stability. It would have been faced with dressed stone.

 Behind this arch is the White Tower, the centerpiece of the Tower of London, built by William the Conqueror almost a thousand years ago. William is a quasi-hero on my list, a fascinating study. I think of him and his knights as dark hero material.

Look at how thick the wall is at the arch. And see the ramp up the side to the entrance? Picture the original entrance with wooden ladders or stairs that could be retracted in times of siege, and paint the tower white in your mind, and you'll see it as it was in the early Middle Ages. Medieval kings and barons loved color and would never have left their castles the plain old stone we think of today. You can see great photos of the Tower and read about its fascinating history on a number of web sites such as these:
http://www.britannia.com/history/h30.html
http://www.toweroflondontour.com/
http://www.hrp.org.uk/webcode/home.asp 

In the White Tower, I spotted the armor of Sir Christopher Hatton, Captain of Queen Elizabeth I's bodyguard. Hatton happens to be the name of my ancestors who left England in 1685. Wouldn't it be cool to be related to this guy? But maybe not. Anybody charged with keeping Elizabeth on the throne probably wasn't a nice guy. I checked it out - he wasn't. Cross him off the Heroes List.

 We no sooner got under way on the excursion boat than a regatta came upon us. In the lead was a Thames fireboat in full spray, followed by all sorts of craft, including Thames cutters just like the boats I've written into several stories. We passed Cleopatra's Needle, brought from Egypt, magnificent Somerset House, and under five bridges. Rather than show you all my pictures, I'll give you this Web site to visit: http://www.touruk.co.uk

 

And there's the Globe Theater, almost overwhelmed by modern buildings, yet so distinctive with its Elizabethan, half-timbered exterior. See that brick building to its left? That's the International Shakespeare Globe Center. EAT THERE. More in a minute on that.

When we disembarked at Westminster Bridge, Andy had finally won. We took the Tube under the river but still had eight blocks to walk. While we were wandering around lost, a nice fellow offered directions. A word of advice here: be wary of directions from Londoners. You'll soon be even more lost. Turns out we were right the first time. By the time we found the theater, I thought my feet were going to fall off. Tickets were available, but Standing Room Only. 

But take a look at this colorful interior. Just mind-blowing. The acting was good enough to keep us entranced, but after two acts, I thought I was dying, and not even my intrepid son was up to the third act. "I know how it ends," I said. "Let's take a taxi back." On our way out, a desperate-sounding woman bought our tickets for half of what we'd paid. I was still insisting on the taxi, but Andy was sure I'd be fine once I ate. And after one of the best mushroom pasta meals I've had in my life, and a glass of wine, I reluctantly agreed to follow the waiter's directions to the closest Tube station across the bridge. (What did I say about Londoners giving directions?)

So we climbed the stairs onto the Southwark Bridge on that balmy September evening, and that breathtaking sunset became one of the high points of the entire trip. Good thing, too. The Tube station was indeed only a few blocks away, as the waiter had said, but it turned out to be one of only two stations in all of London that closes at 5 p.m. By this time, it was dark and clearly not London's best area, and I was even more glad my son is a big man. And even though the waiter was very handsome and served a great meal, he has also been crossed off the Heroes List.

Several blocks farther, we finally entered the Underground. But not a station on the line we needed to take. So we hiked beneath the streets of London, up and down escalators, some of which weren't working, and ended up more than a mile away, where we finally plopped, exhausted, onto the hard seats of the underground train. I can't say I'm a Tube fan, but I have to admit it is by far the fastest and cheapest way to get around London. Save your money for sightseeing. But learn a bit about it before you go:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/

Wow, what a day! Finally back in our hotel rooms, I collapsed. Guess what my son did. He went out to check the pub down the street. Well, this is a story about heroes. So go back to the photo above of the arch and the White Tower. See the guy in the black leather coat? That's Andy - the hero of this story for putting up with his mom and driving her all over England for two weeks. And for those of you who know me, no, you're right. He doesn't look anything like me. But that's okay. I contributed the brains.
 

To read last month's Travel article, click here.

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