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Bonfire Night in Britain

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Specially Chosen Cotswold Press Articles from around the World

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Specially Chosen Cotswold Press Articles from around the World

Special interest articles about the Cotswolds published in the World Press
04/15/2007
Lords of the Manor
When I called Lords of the Manor to book the table, the French voice on the phone tactfully suggested that jeans and trainers would be inappropriate for the dining room. I couldn't agree more I'm so over jeans and trainers. A dress code that might have come across as incredibly square a year ago, suddenly sounded quite hip. Lords of the Manor is the restaurant in the hotel of the same name in the village of Upper Slaughter, near Stow-on-the-Wold. It's the quintessence of Cotswold..........
04/15/2007
England's Cotswolds Peaceful, Charming
PAINSWICK, England -- The main road through this picturesque village says a great deal about the timeless quality of the Cotswolds, a region of low, rolling hills in England's West Country. A vision of tranquil English village life, the street is lined with charming, centuries-old stone houses and a half-timbered post office that dates from the Middle Ages........
10/10/2006
The Pudding Club - A Paean To English Puddings In The Cotswolds
But, as food preferences evolve, Britain’s great puddings, even the sweet variety, were being overlooked in favor of Black Forest cake and strawberry cheesecake. In 1985, to preserve this important piece of culinary heritage, Three Ways House Hotel, a historic hotel in the low hills called the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, 90 miles from London in southwest England, established the Pudding Club. The goal: to preserve the pudding from drifting into obscurity.......
09/02/2006
The Cotswolds and beyond
What turned out to be one of our 'funnest' trip in years, unfortunately started out in a very stressful manner. But that's life. So let me tell you how it all began:
My partner Dianne Marie and I arrived at Heathrow Airport outside London, some 13 hours after leaving San Francisco. We immediately rented a car and attempted to drive to The Cotswolds. Yes, I said "attempted," because it took us forever to get there.


09/13/2006
Mindful of politics, culture in England
ED JONES is editor of The Free Lance-Star. He can be reached at 540/374-5401 or at edjones@freelancestar.com.


GLANCE AT THE stone walls inside the little old church in Sherborne, England, and you'll notice a roster of vicars who have graced the pulpit there. The list goes back 900 years.

But it was a reference of more recent vintage that caught my eye last week as I strolled around the sanctuary. A needlepoint pad for kneeling worshippers offered a simple but touching message: "God bless America. Stand beside her, and guide her. September 11, 2001."

That evening, as my wife, Peggy, and I were watching the BBC news in our rented cottage in the Cotswolds, 75 miles west of London, we heard about a survey that found that most Britons think it's time to put distance between their country and the United States in the war on terrorism.

Those sentiments surfaced as newspapers and TV reporters swarmed around the Labor Party infighting that forced Prime Minister Tony Blair, George W. Bush's most loyal and articulate ally in the post-9/11 period, to promise to step down from office within the next year. Blair, the fresh, boyish leader of the Brits a decade ago, has become stale..........

08/30/2006
Reading to avoid ignorant-American status
ED JONES is editor of The Free Lance-Star. He can be reached at 540/374-5401 or at edjones@freelancestar.com


I'M NOT PROUD of it, but I might as well confess. I recently purchased my very own copy of "British History for Dummies."

Now granted, there are many areas of expertise in which I would quickly qualify as a dummy. Plumbing and cooking are two that come to mind.

But being a dummy on British history hurts.

After all, I took a course on the Tudors in college. I subscribe to The Spectator, a weekly opinion journal from Britain that keeps me on top of politics across the pond.

I once had an electronic subscription to The Times of London. I still read an array of newspapers and magazines about the Church of England.

But as my wife, Peggy, and I prepare for a short trip to the Cotswolds, that rolling slice of England three hours west of London, I still feel like a dummy............

01/04/2006
All of Stratford's a Shakespeare stage
The Free Lance-Star


By MARY ELLEN BOTTERTHE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Hamlet proclaimed, "The play's the thing."

The Royal Shakespeare Company will prove that's true.

The troupe is sponsoring a yearlong festival at Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's hometown, at which all of the Bard's 37 plays plus his sonnets and long poems will be performed.

It will be the first time that all of the works will be presented in a single event.

The festival will open on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, and continue into April 2007..............

05/26/2002
Walk Along River Thames Left Indelible Impressions
After spending the better part of last month in England, walking along the River Thames, a few random observations (mostly ecologically inspired) seem in order this week. So, with a tip of the hat to author Bill Bryson, who was encountered out there in a Cotswold field, here are some of my own "notes from a long, long river.".......
 

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Bonfire Night

Most Americans, being rebellious by nature, would have liked Guy Fawkes. Americans like to make statements. So did Mr. Fawkes. Americans like to demonstrate. So did Mr. Fawkes. Guy Fawke effigy on top of bonfire waiting to be burnt at night fallAmericans like a nice cosy fire. So did Mr. Fawkes.

What Mr. Fawkes did not like was Catholics, King James I, and most members of Parliament. He disliked them so much that he decided to blow them up.

To this end he managed to get a whole bunch of gun powder--hence the term 'Gun Powder Plot' - packed into the basement of Westminster Palace to finish off government with one big bang. Unfortunately for the local anarchists, before Guy could light a match, the politicians got wise to his pending felony and placed him under arrest. He was then tortured, tried, convicted, sentenced, and hung, although not necessarily in that order. To get the message across to other malcontents, he was then drawn and quartered, which is pretty nasty stuff. The mess that was left was placed on display in London. Nobody, not even Islamic nutters, have tried the same stunt since.

To acknowledge the good intentions of Mr. Fawkes, on the fifth of every November, the anniversary of his misbehaviour (1605), the British celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. They do this Bonfire night on 5 November throughout Englandwith big bonfires. Naturally the celebration is called 'Bon Fire Night' and a good time is had by all, save of course the local firemen.

Oddly, Fawkes, a Yorkshireman by birth, had served in the Spanish Army. You didn't get much more Catholic than the Spanish Army. Getting zealots to change colours, however, has never been a difficult task. In fact Adolph Hitler did some of his best recruiting amongst the German Communists. [Hitler also liked bon fires.]

Burning things is an old British tradition. In fact the explanation for Britain's cold and wet weather is that God made it that way to remind the English to burn lots of Catholics. Of course when the Catholics were in charge, they burnt lots of Protestants. In the end I imagine it all came out about even.


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Bonfire Night in Britain