Sunday, September 13th, 2009: Welford and Surroundings

After breakfast, Jeff, Helen, Monika and I went for a morning walk that looped around two local reservoirs. Since Monika and I had done a good bit of driving over the last several days, we enjoyed being able to stretch our legs a bit and see the typical English countryside of the Midlands area. Of course, we had to cross fences at the edges of the fields and the local farmers had provided what they called "kissing styles" to cross from one field to the next that were shaped like a "V" with a swinging gate in the middle. Monika and I had, of course, to try one out in action!

Even the fences were pretty and some were ingeniously constructed by planting some kind of woody bush in a row, curving the branches to be level at about waist high, and then twining or braiding them together. That obviously took a lot of careful, patient work to construct, but Jeff said that once constructed such a living fence could last for 50 years or more, which would really make it worthwhile if one takes the very long run view!

Curiously, the water levels in the two reservoirs were quite different. The lower reservoir had very low water levels as we could clearly see the "high water" marks on the shores that indicated how full it had once been. Jeff remarked that he had only seen it that low once before during a prolonged drought.

The upper reservoir, in contrast, was chock full of water. It appeared to me that the upper reservoir was used by fishermen and possibly stocked with fish for that purpose, which might explain keeping that reservoir full while letting the lower one decline. The local waterfowl, however, had a decided preference for the lower reservoir despite the low water levels, and we saw flocks of Canadian geese, some ducks and even a Great Blue heron flying by. Looking back along our route, we also had a great view of the little village of Welford.

After lunch we visited Naseby Battlefield, which lies only about 5-10 kilometers from Welford. We had to navigate the typical small country lanes to get there, however, and I was extremely grateful that Jeff was doing the driving so that I could just relax in the passenger's seat for once. Jeff knew where the site was, of course, so we arrived without any of the map reading contortions or using a GPS as I would have had to do. Being chauffeured around by our host rather than struggling with traffic and way-finding was so pleasant.

The Battle of Naseby was the deciding battle between Cromwell's "New Model Army" and the Royalists fighting for Charles I in the English Civil War. We were amazed at the high percentage of each force that was composed of horse-mounted calvary. The Royalist forces had 4,600 foot soldiers and 5550 calvary (over 50%!) while the New Model Army had 7,500 foot soldiers, 5400 calvary, and 676 Dragoons. Although it looked to me like a closely-fought and fairly even battle, ultimately Cromwell's forces won the day and that in turn decided the dominance of Parliament in the English system of government. The human cost, as in any civil war, was quite high although the numbers described on that plaque did not seem to compare to the casualties incurred at critical points in the U.S. Civil War at key turning point battlefields such as Gettysburg or Antietam, which could rightly be described as blood baths.

English Royalty after the Battle of Naseby did not fare all that well. Charles I was ultimately beheaded and despite the Restoration period of Charles II and James II, the ultimately decline of influence of the royal house in England was a foregone conclusion. Nowadays, it seems to me, the royal house of Windsor is a decorative but quite expensive appurtenance to the British system of government. I was very amused, in fact, to read in the local papers that Queen Elizabeth II was requesting 46 million pounds for refurbishing her royal palaces despite her family having assets totalling many billions of pounds. That, to me, takes the same gall as the chairman of Exxon in the United States coming to Congress and asking for a tax break! Politics can be so amusing.

Shortly after we returned from the battlefield, Amy, Helen and Jeff's daughter, and her 1-year old son Raphael came! Missing our own grandchildren, and because he was so dreadfully cute, we made a big fuss over Raphael of course. He was, for the most part, a calm serious baby and stared at us newcomers with wide open eyes. I made the mistake of taking a flash picture, which surprised him and set him to crying, but Monika was able to make friends with him in short order and he even allowed her to hold him after a bit. I wish I had her way with children, but I don't seem to have that "mothering" knack really, or maybe I just look odd or ferocious, but in any case I had to take it more slowly before Raphael finally came around and made friends. So all in all we had a very nice family evening before setting off to bed.