Clocks and Rocks

     Hello! My name is Alyssa Luukkonen, and I just finished my second year of college at St. Scholastica, where I’m pursuing degrees in English and Communications. I really wanted to travel abroad at some point in college, but I didn’t know if I wanted to commit to a semester-long trip, so I thought a three-week program in the summer would be perfect! Having taken not only the literature portion of the trip, Literature of London, but also British Literature I and II this year, I felt quite prepared and excited to be in the actual site of so much literary history.

     Today was the group’s second day of traveling outside of London. Whereas the day before we traveled via Coach two hours Northwest to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace and burial site of the famous poet/playwright William Shakespeare, today we traveled two hours West to Salisbury and Stonehenge. Leaving the hotel at 8 a.m., we arrived in Salisbury around 10 where Dr. Johnson gave us some information about the Salisbury Cathedral we would be seeing.

     It was built in 1220, but the tower and spire were added a century later. The spire itself is 404 feet tall (123 meters) and weighs 6500 tons. Because it has lasted longer than other spires constructed at the time, it has remained the largest spire since the 16th century. The Salisbury Cathedral also contains the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta.

     Once inside the cathedral, the first thing we saw was the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta, which is Latin for “Great Charter”, is the document created in 1215 when the barons made demands to King John regarding unjust taxes. We were unable to take pictures of the actual Magna Carta due to preservation, but I did get a picture of a replica for reference. I learned that the reason why the writing is so small is because the animal skin it was printed on was so expensive that people used up as much space as they could.

Afterwards, we got to see one of the floors of the cathedral, which was an example of English Gothic architecture. It also contained the world’s oldest working mechanical clock! We were able to catch a demonstration of the clock and hear the bells, but don’t ask me how it works! He explained it, but I could not follow the technical language.

Next, it was a 20 minute bus ride to Stonehenge, where we got a chance to eat some lunch at their cafe. We then had to take another shorter bus out to the actual monument itself. They provided audio tours, which were nice because you could go at your own pace.

Stonehenge was constructed in the Neolithic period, but as many people reading may be aware, we still don’t know for sure why it made or what it was used for, though there are several theories. One theory is that it is a domain for the ancestors/dead, while another theory suggests it was a place of healing, as the blue stones (the ones on the inside) have been considered to have healing properties. Another major thing to consider is how the stones were transported there. According to the audio guide, they would have been moved over land using wooden rollers. One thing that I found interesting was that, because Stonehenge was erected before metal was introduced to England, the tools used to shape the stones were hammer rocks.

After completing the audio guide, we returned back to the bus and finally returned to London. All-in-all, it was quite the historical day.