Архитектура Великобритании

The unforgettable Belsay quarry garden is a man-made landscape, of course, but the wild woodland style of gardening helps make it look natural. Later it was added to by Sir Charles' grandson, Sir Arthur Middleton. Because it's so sheltered, the quarry garden is a superbly stable environment in which plant life can thrive.

Exotic plants have been carefully positioned to make them seem natural too. Huge, water-loving plant from South America abounds. And in a sheltered corner by the arch there's even a palm-tree. "It's not warm, and it's not frosty either, but the climate moves steadily from extreme to extreme, so plants are flung around between the opposite extremes and they do well. You can come in here in December, hen the - sky is black and it's snowing and the rhododendrons 30 feet high are in full bloom and it's magic".

Beside the rhododendrons are many other species of delicate plants and ferns which thrive in the warm moist conditions. The feeling of utter seclusion and the absence of wind is heightened by the ranks of towering Scottish pine, for which Belsay is famous.

In summer the sunken lawns of the winter gardens are used for crochet, a perfect setting. For more than 150 years the scene has been dominated by a vast Douglas fur planted here immediately after its introduction from North America in 1827.

And so, back to the hall via the magnolia terrace, which is now being replanted with new varieties including shrub rose and geranium.

Sumptuous gardens and medieval castle and extraordinary neoclassical Georgian hall. After 600 years of history Belsay remains one of the most remarkable estates in the north of England.

DOVER CASTLE

High above the bustling modern port like an ancient crown astride the famous cliffs stands a castle, which is unrivalled in its position, history and sheer breathtaking size. Built within the ramparts of the prehistoric Iron Age fort Dover has the longest recorded history of any major fortress in Britain. William the Conqueror spent eight days here in 1066 strengthening the existent Saxon defenses although what remains today dates from the 12-13 centuries.

The central keep of the castle is one of the finest in Europe built for Henry II in thell80's. The main entrance is in the huge fore building, the most ambitious structure of its type in castle building before or since. Built into it a pail of tiny chapels designed in what we now call early English style: the round arches of late Norman combined with Gothic columns. The stairs were originally partly open to the sky commanded by the battlement above and in the middle there must have been a draw bridge. Inside are the vast rooms of the royal apartments where Henry II and the court who traveled with him could stay in absolute safety and comparative warmth and luxury. At the south end of the second floor the King had own very private chapel. It is beautifully proportioned and similarly planned to a tiny parish church. The roof of the keep was strengthened by Georgian military engineers over 500 years later to carry heavy guns. It is still a superb viewpoint. From here with a great sweeping view of a harbor and the town nearly 500 feet below, it's easy to see why Dover Castle became known as a key to England. In the early 13th century new gate ways and defense works were built on Dover outer western wall. This is a gate house of two periods. A. conical roof was added to. a big mural tower of king John's reign in about 1300.

In the 1220's the castle had a magnificent new entrance - the work of famous Hubert De Burk, Constable of Dover, who had successfully held the castle against the French in the siege in 1216. Constable's gate was one of the greatest gate houses of its day, although its top section was modernized by the Victorians, most of it looks now just as it did 750 years ago - a doting prospect to any would-be-attackers.

After a period of comparative quiet Dover entered a new era of life in 1740's when Georgian and later Victorian engineers set to work on the ramparts and once again updated its defenses. In fact the oldest surviving building within the castle wall is the Roman light house. The Pharos is one of the tallest standing structures of its age west of the Alps. It was strengthened, then heightened in the 15' century as a bell tower. Beside it the Anglo-Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro almost completely rebuilt in the 1860's.

The original cruciform plan and scale of a church indicates that it would have held minister status as a home of the community of priests. Beside the door there is the list of priests dating back to the early 13th century.

Today the castle and its church are expecting an important visitor. The post of Constable of Dover, once held by Hubert De Burk still exists. Other notable constables have included the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Chuchill. An annual visit to the parish church is one of the duties of the current Constable. Her majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother has been Constable of Dover since 1978. She takes her duties very seriously.

During World War II Dover Castle was once again put to military use. The harbor below was of strategic importance and in the huge network of tunnels buiil in the cliffs beneath the castle a new secret military headquarters was constructed. The evacuation of the British Army from Dunkerk was coordinated from here as well as the monitoring of the enemy ships and allies' shipping movement in the Channel and wireless transmission from occupied Europe which lay a mere 22 miles away across the Straight of Dover.

There was also an anti aircraft operations room where information on the course of enemy aircraft from observers on the new chain of radar masts was charted on screen and plotting tables. Up until the 1970's the tunnels of Dover remained prepared for being original seat of government in case of an emergency such as nuclear attack.

Dover Castle is a unique military monument with 2000 years of military technology inside and beneath its ancient ramparts.

It is the most important coastal defense work in Europe and probably one of Europe's best preserved strategic strongholds.

TINTAGEL CASTLE

Jutting into the wild and wind-swept seas of the North-Cornish coast an ancient place of mystery and romance probably without rival on the British Isles - Tintagel Castle. Even today Tintagel remains a complete enigma. Overlooked from the hill-top on the mainland by the village of Tintagel, the island is connected by a thin causeway. The word "tin" means "fortress", "tagel" - probably a narrow strip of land, the neck of the island. The island is known of the medieval castle, the highest points of which, the upper and lower walls, are actually on the mainland. The castle was - almost certainly built by Earl Richard of Cornwall, younger brother of King Henry III, who created his new fortress in 1233 on the site of what have been probably a roman trading post.

A doorway leads into the inner ward on the island proper. Tintagel's fame though is based not on fact but on the legends which have brought it an extraordinary and almost magical atmosphere. According to folklore, this was the mystical home of the ancient magician Merlin and the birthplace of King Arthur of the Round Table. And the evidence is that it could have been the stronghold of some post-roman Cornish ruler, possibly a king. What's so strange is that a castle should be built here on an island of little strategic importance, miles away from the main inland trading routes of Cornwall. Then it fell into disrepair - by the 14th century the great hall lost its roof. The chapel was extended when the castle was built, originally dedicated to an obscure Celtic saint Judith. It was still in use in 1483 and long after the castle was in ruins. At the base of the island the spectacular Merlin's cave, inside which, according u to the legend so loved by the poet Tennyson, the infant Arthur was discovered. But after the tempests when the long waves broke all down the thundering shoals of brine and moss there came a day as still as heaven and then they found a naked child upon the sands of dark Tintagel by the Cornish sea. And that was Arthur. And they fostered him till he by miracle was a proven king.

AUDLEYEND

In 1605 Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk and Lord-treasurer to the King James I started work on what was to become one of the largest and most magnificent country houses in England. It was a huge undertaking. Today, although only a third of its original size, this remains one of the great houses of East Anglia.

In its day Audley End was so magnificent that even the kings of England were worried that the Essex state had grown grander and more impressive than their own royal palaces.

Inside Audley End is a treasure trove of paintings, furniture, and ossign in rooms with striking variety of styles. Dominating the great hall of the house is a massive wooden Jacobine screen superbly covered with distinctive patterns and figures, characteristic of its age, which may originally have been brightly painted. This was a house designed specifically to accommodate royalty as guests, and indeed James I stayed here in 1610 and 1614. Later, Audley End was owned by Charles II.

The family accommodation was usually confined to the ground floor of the house, once the main reception rooms were on the first floor.

This is the dining-room, re-modeled by the third Lord Braberook, who inherited Audley End in 1825. It's presided over by Larkin's magnificent full-length portrait of the forth Lord of Braberook. Lord Braberook also created a colorful sitting-room, in which he housed the cream of Audley End's collection of paintings. Taking pride of place, Venice, by Antonio Canalli Canaletto, depicting a view of the Campanelli and Dodges’ Palace on the bay of St Mark, illustrating Canaletto's brilliant feeling for light. There are outstanding landscapes by the Dutch painter Van Goyen. This is "the Shore", bought for 21 pounds in Christie’s in 1773.

In the north wing now looking almost exactly as it did in photographs taken in 1891, Lady Braberook's sitting room. The commode and cupboards are Louis XVI. There is also fine Louis XIV’ furniture in the library, in the bay window, a superb writing table. Below the south library, Robert Adam's masterpiece of interior design, a wonderful little sitting-room for the ladies to escape to once the gentlemen got started on the port after dinner. Adam also built the bridge on the grounds known as the Tea-house bridge in 1782, the river Cam had already been dammed to make a lake. A boathouse was added in the 19th century to complement the sweeping grounds, laid by Cabability Brown so, too, was an enchanting rose-garden. On the hill to the south a fine temple of Concord was built in 1790 to celebrate George the 3rd recovery from insanity. It has always been hoped that George III would visit Audley End and the apartments were designed and made specifically for the royal guest. The magnificent state bed was completed in 1786. But, alas, the king never used it. Audley End had its own chapel and it is a remarkably complete example of the style known as Carpenter's Gothic. The painted glass over the altar depicts the Last Supper. Except on Sundays when they went to church family and the stuff would pray here every morning, afterwards, breakfast would be served in another of Audley End's huge variety of contrasting rooms. This is the saloon with its extraordinary Jacobine ceiling, decorated with plaster sea monsters and ships. For their breakfast the family would sit here in the saloon's little bay window with its floor specially raised to take advantage of the view. A view over what is still probably, the most memorable estate in, the East of England.

STONEHENGE

A summer sunrise over Salisbury plain and the historical giant that is without doubt the most important prehistoric monument in the whole Britain is brought alive by the early morning light. 3500 years ago this was a temple made up of an outer circle of huge blocks of sandstone called "sarsen" dragged from a site about 20 miles to the north of Stonehenge. The biggest sarsens weigh over 45 tons. Inside the sandstone circle stand the smaller bluestones, brought here over 240 miles from the Prescilley mountains in South Wales. At the focus of a central blue stone horseshoe is a fallen stone that became known as the "altar" stone, a semi-buried block of bluestone from Pembrokeshire. One of the refinements which makes Stonehenge so unusual is the way the stones have been squared to shape by pounding with stone hammers, with the lintels held in place by the sophisticated mortise and tenon stone joints. The original entrance is marked by a fallen slaughter stone and beyond it, in the distance the famous "heel" stone, over which the midsummer sun passes in the longest day of the year when viewed from the center of the stones.

Exactly why and how Stonehenge was built and in what precise way it was used as a temple will remain a mystery forever. What we do know is that this astonishing construction is probably the most remarkable achievement of prehistoric engineering in Europe.

BATTLE ABBEY

You know there is something special about this picturesque litle Sussex town the moment you arrive. It's grown-up beside an abbey which is built on the site of probably the most famous battle in English history. On these fields in October 14, 1066 an invading army of about 7000 troops led by William Duke of Normandy fought and eventually defeated the English army, who were defending the crest of the hill. Legend has it that King Harold was killed by an arrow through his eye and today a stone commemorating his death lies almost exactly where he fell.

William ordered the building of an abbey on the site of his famous victory to atone for the death of so many people. The altar of his church should be here, where his great enemy had fallen. Most of the original abbey buildings were completed in 1100. There were alterations and enlargements in the 13th century and later the 14th century, including the tower on the west of the abbot's guest range.

The monks lived in this huge building which unusually was built into the slope of the hill. All parts of Williams determination of the abbey must be built on the exact site of the battle. That's why the novices' room on the south side has a particularly high-vaulted ceiling supported by a central row of huge pillars, it allows the dormitory above to be built on a level floor. At the other end of the buildings cut into the hill, the monks' common room, has a much lower ceiling which would have helped to keep the room warm in winter. Portable braziers sometimes were brought in during the few leisure periods the monks were allowed. The chapter house like Rievaulx was the place where monks would gather on stone benches once a day to discuss the abbey's business affairs.

Much of the abbot's great hall in the west range has survived after being rebuilt in later centuries. It's now part of the school. On east front the remains of superb cloister arcading along the lower part of the wall. In the late 1330th the gatehouse was built and it remains one of the finest medieval monastic gatehouses in England, a fitting tribute to a moment and a battle that changed the course of English history.

OSBORNE HOUSE

Queen Victoria called this her "dear beautiful Osborne", a seaside home where for fifty years she and her family enjoyed some of the happiest days of their lives.

Osborne was built between 1845 and 1851 under the personal direction of Prince Albert. The view across the sea reminded the Prince of the Bay of Naples and it was perhaps this memory that made him put so much emphasis on the Italian style that echoes through the house and the gardens. Albert had hired a London building contractor, Thomas Cubert to develop the estate using the simple classic lines of the newly fashionable Italian style Cubert had used so effectively in Bloomsbury, Belgravia and Pimblico. Every corner of the terraces had to be filled with copies of Italianmoulds. It was all part of the plan to create an idyllic retreat words away from the rigours of British state ceremonial.

The visitors' entrance to the house is at the west front. Here again classical subjects dominate the eye. The marble winged Victory in the grand corridor was bought by the Queen for Prince Albert at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Osborne was above all a private family house. A picture of the family group including the five eldest royal children was hung here in pride of place in the dining-room on Queen Victoria's birthday in 1849. In those days dinner was served promptly at 8 p.m. But by the end of the century it was 9.15 when the Queen arrived and the company could sit down to eat.

Much of the Queen's day would have been spent upstairs in the sitting-room where she would attend to urgent matters of state. She would work on her dispatch boxes at her desk, while the beloved Prince Consort would sit at his own desk submitting memoranda for the Queen's inspection in his capacity as her personal and private secretary. Later when the Queen grew she had to come down from ner suite on the first floor by a lift hand-operated by an attendant in the basement. The formal drawing-room was downstairs. The Queen described it as an extremely handsome room with its yellow Damask satin curtains and furniture to match. The marble-top table depicting views of Rome was presented to Victoria in 1859 by Pope Pious IX after her visit to Rome with the Prince of Wales. The grand piano was often used by the Queen and other members of the household to entertain guests which often included visiting foreign royalty. The piano and six matching cabinets surmounting the bookcases are decorated with porcelain plagues showing the copies of Italian old master paintings. The Queen withdrew to the drawing-room after dinner whilst the gentlemen retired to the billiards room. The two rooms were cleverly adjoined so that while technically the gentlemen were still in the Queen's presence and required to stand, curtains drawn across the column screen kept them out of sight to do as they chose. The Queen, too, played billiards. She learned the game on this ornate slit table, the frieze panels were designed by Prince Albert. The Prince also conceived the elaborate lightning above the table. Here as elsewhere in the house is the evidence of Albert's great love for Victoria. He also purchased a painting depicting Raphael painting one of his Madonnas. It was not only Albert's taste that strongly influenced the design of Osborne House. Seventeen years after Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1874, a state banqueting hall, the Hors d'oeuvres room was added to the house. Its deeply carved ceiling was made of fibrous plaster. Every surface is richly embellished. 25 workmen worked over 500 hours to produce the Peacockalone. The walls framed with tick are enriched with plaster and papier-mache. The completion of the room in 1893 coincided with the introduction of electricity in Osborne House. These lampstands were specially designed for the room in recognition of this.

Part of hors d'oeuvres room, was designed by Lochwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's father. The principal craftsman was Byram Sing whose portrait by the Austrian court artist Rudolph Svoboda hangs in the corridor outside. Beside it, the Queen's most famous Indian servant Abdul Karim who came to Osborne in 1887 and rose to become her principal Indian secretary. Despite being Empress Queen Victoria never went to India. But in an effort to find out more about the country she commissioned Svoboda to go there and paint portraits of ordinary people from all walks of life. Such was her enthusiasm for all things Indian that the Queen even learnt Hindustani.

The main house is some distance from the sea, and today visitors can enjoy the journey through the estate towards the coast in the same manner the royal family would have done a hundred years ago. Close to the beach is Swiss cottage much favored by the royal children where the family could relax in even greater privacy. Close by - the Queen's bathing-machine with the changing room and it own WC.

In the main house the younger royal children were confined to the nursery suite. The centerpiece here - a superb mahogany-framed swing cradle made for Vicky the Princess Royal in 1840. Nearly are the cots with hinged sides and upholstered pads to protect the children. As was the fashion, marble copies were made of the children's limbs.

There's the hand of Edward, Prince of Wales, aged 14 month and the foot of Princess Victoria who was then 2 years old. The nursery suite was situated so as to provide Victoria and Albert with an easy access from their own private apartments. This is Queen Victoria's bedroom. On the headboard, above the bed, a posthumous picture of Albert who died in 1861 and beside it a holder for his pocketwatch. It was in this room that in January 1901 the Queen herself died. It was, most people agree, the end of an era, as well as the end of a 64-year reign, during which, for one family at least, the most carefree and peaceful days were spent here, in a tranquil corner of the Isle of Wight.

5. ПРИЛОЖЕНИЯ

Приложение 1

Марина МАСЛОВА

О КОМНАТНЫХ РАСТЕНИЯХ - СКВОЗЬ АНГЛИЙСКИЕ ОЧКИ

Скажите, неужели там правда такая зеленая трава?

Или это только на пленке так?

Сергей П., студент гр. 1151 (2001)

Всё в самом деле так. И трава в Англии (правда, дело было весной) зеленая-зеленая, и среди травы растут те самые daffodils, про которые писал Вордсворт, и поскольку растут они, как у нас одуванчики, то их с удовольствием топчут и жуют громадные английские овцы в черных разбойничьих масках. И каждый кусочек земли - пусть даже размером с носовой платок - любовно возделан и ухожен.

Но все это известно - даже если не увиденные воочию, но по книгам и видео. Любопытно другое: оказывается любовь и интерес к растениям отличала англичан всегда. Чтобы понять это, достаточно изучить любое руководство для любителей комнатных растений - ну а затем зайти в цветочный магазин и посмотреть на все сквозь "английские очки".

Итак, полистаем энциклопедию...

Начнем с растения, чьи желто-оранжево-зеленые крупные листья украшают полки любого цветочного магазина. Кодиеум, избалованный южный красавец, привезен из Индии примерно в 1860 г. английским садоводом и собирателем растений Джоном Гоулдом Вейчем. Трудно сказать, чего это растение принесет вам больше - радости или хлопот, но его оригинальный вид несомненно привлечет ваше внимание.

Комнатное растение, похожее на изящную елочку, носит экзотическое имя − араукария. С момента ее волнующей встречи с совершавшим кругосветное путешествие капитаном Куком (да-да, тем самым…) прошло много лет. Теперь лишь специалисты-ботаники (а теперь и читатели Эльфа) знают, что Кук впервые нашел эту красавицу в 1775 г. на островах Норфолк в Тихом океане. В этой экспедиции, кстати, принимал участие и не менее знаменитый ботаник − сэр Джозеф Бэнкс. С именем Бэнкса, президента Королевского Ботанического общества, связано появление в Европе стрелиции − растения, похожего одновременно и на цветущий куст, и на букет из желто-оранжево-синих цветов.

Не отставал от своего коллеги и сэр Вильям Джексон Хукер, бывший в свое время директором ботанического сада Кью. Хукер "подарил" нам витфиелдию (уайтфилдию) - деревце с кожистыми темными листьями и прелестными белыми цветами; а также растение с весьма странным названием "ятрофа подагрическая" и с не менее странными привычками - ярко цветущее и забавное, оно ядовито - и зачем его держать дома? Кто их поймет, этих англичан!

Английские дамы никогда не отставали от своих мужественных соотечественников - это утверждение верно и для ботаники.

Сестры Элизабет и Сара Мэри Фиттон опубликовали в Лондоне книгу "Conversations on Botany" в 1850 г По всей видимости, именно за это в их честь и было названо открытое чуть позднее небольшое травянистое растение с зелено-белыми листьями. В ней есть что-то очень сдержано английское Теперь фиттонию можно найти в любой цветочной лавке - вот она, в специальной, уютной коробке среди других небольших растений.

Еще одну даму, удостоившуюся чести дать название целому роду растений, звали Матильда Смит, и была она в 1840-х годах рисовальщицей растений в ботаническом саду Кью. Смитинианта красива и во время цветения, и просто как декоративно-лиственное растение. Интересно, была ли Матильда Смит так же всегда очаровательна?

Если вы устали от имен и названий, следующий объект внимания позволит вам расслабиться. Ведь это - скромная традесканция, извечное украшение школьных кабинетов и больничных холлов А названо это растение в честь двух настоящих Традескантов: придворного садовника короля Карла I - Джона Традесканта-отца и Джона Традесканта-сына, тоже садовника, а затем ботаника и путешественника Ну что, удивлены?

Еще одно растение - напоминает традесканцию. Но название звучит очень уж по-испански: хойя. Тем не менее, это самое что ни на есть английское имя, потому что садовника герцога Нортумберлендского звали Томас Хой. Он жил во второй половине 18 века и был известным селекционером и садоводом.

А растение на рисунке справа, хоть родом из Латинской Америки, но названо по имени двух Мильтонов: орхидеевода лорда Фицвильяма, виконта Мильтона, и знаменитого поэта Джона Мильтона. Поэтому и называется оно - мильтония. В энциклопедии говорится, что

Мильтония − растение не для начинающих.

Что ж, прямо как стихи Мильтона. Но кто знает, кто знает...

Дома у автора - фиттония и кодиеум. А у вас, читатель?

Приложение 2

You who disbelieve in miracles and magic, you who are glued to their TV and computer screens for hours on end, read this extract from the best book about King Arthur and learn how young Arthur became king of all England

Arthur, the son of Uther Pendragon, high king of Britain, was born during a time of war and great confusion To protect the child, Uther gave him to the magician Merlyn, who secretly brought him to a knight named Ector Sir Ector raised the boy as his own When Uther died — without an heir, his subjects thought — there was much disagreement about who should be king

Then stood the realm in great jeopardy for a long while, for every lord that was mighty of men made himself strong and wanted to be king Then Merlyn went to the Archbishop of Canterbury and told him to send for all the lords and knights of the realm, that they should come to London by Christmas For Jesus, who was born on that night, would of His great mercy show by some miracle who should nghtwise be king of this realm

So at Christmas, in the greatest church of London, all the lords came to pray And there was seen in the churchyard a great square stone with an anvil of steel in the middle And stuck in the anvil was a fair sword and letters written in gold around the sword that said this:

WHOSO PULLETH OUTE THIS SWORD OF THIS STONE AND

ANVIL IS RIGHTWYS KYNGE BORNE OF ALL ENGLAND

And when they saw the writing some who wanted to be king attempted, but none could move the sword "He is not here," said the Archbishop, "who shall win the sword, but fear not that God will soon make him known " So it was ordered that every man who wanted to be king should try the sword And upon New Year's Day, a tournament was held so that all knights could joust there

And so it happened that a knight named Sir Ector rode unto the jousts, and with him rode Sir Kay, his son, and young Arthur who was his foster son And as they rode to the joust, Sir Kay noticed that he had left his sword at his father's lodging, and so he asked young Arthur to ride for it

"I will well," said Arthur, and he rode fast after the sword

And when he came home, the house was closed, for all were out to see the jousting Then was Arthur angry and said to himself, "I will ride to the churchyard and take the sword that sticks in the stone, for my brother, Sir Kay, shall not be without a sword this day"

So when he came to the churchyard, Arthur found no knights there, for they, too, were at the jousting So he took the sword by the handle and lightly and fiercely pulled it out of the stone and rode his way until he came to his brother, Sir Kay, and delivered him the sword And as soon as Sir Kay saw the sword, he knew it was the sword of the stone and so rode to his father, Sir Ector, and said, "Sir, here is the sword of the stone, therefore I must be king of this land "

When Sir Ector beheld the sword he returned to the church and made Sir Kay swear upon a Bible how he came by the sword

"Sir," said Kay, "my brother, Arthur, brought it to me."

"How got you this sword?" said Sir Ector to Arthur

"Sir, I will tell you When I came home for my brother's sword, I found nobody at home And I thought my brother, Sir Kay, should not be swordless, so 1 came here and pulled it out of the stone "

"Now" said Sir Ector to Arthur, "1 understand you must be king of this land, for never should a man have drawn out this sword but he that shall be nghtwise king Now let me see whether you can put this sword where it was and pull it out again "

So Arthur put it in the stone Then Sir Ector tried to pull out the sword and failed

"Now you try," said Sir Ector unto Sir Kay And he pulled at the sword with all his might, but it would not be

"Now shall you try," said Sir Ector to Arthur

"1 will well," said Arthur and pulled it out easily

And then Sir Ector and Sir Kay knelt down to the earth

"Alas1" said Arthur "Mine own dear father and brother, why kneel you to me?"

"No, my Lord Arthur, it is not so I was never your father nor of your blood, but now I know you are of a higher blood than I ever thought you were " And then Sir Ector told him how he had been entrusted to him by Merlyn And Arthur was very sad when he understood that Sir Ector was not his father

Then they went unto the Archbishop and told him about the sword And all the lords came there to try to take the sword, but none could take it out but Arthur Then were many lords angry and said it was a great shame to them all and to the realm to be governed by a boy of no high blood born And so they all argued and it was put off until Candlemas, when all the lords should meet again

So at Candlemas many more great lords came there to win the sword, and as at New Year's Day, Arthur pulled out the sword easily The lords were very angry, and many said to put it off until the high feast of Easter But some of these great lords were so angry that it was put off even until the feast of Pentecost

And at the feast of Pentecost all manner of men tried to pull out the sword, but none could do it but Arthur, and he pulled it out before all the lords and commons that were there Then all the commons cried at once, "We will have Arthur for our king' We will delay him no more, for we see that it is God's will that he shall be our king, and whoever holds against it, we will slay him "

And they knelt at once, both rich and poor, and asked Arthur for mercy because they had delayed him so long And Arthur forgave them and took the sword between both his hands and offered it up upon the altar to the Archbishop, who made him a knight And soon the coronation was celebrated, and Arthur was sworn unto his lords to be a true king, to stand with true justice for all the days of this life.

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