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For Edwardian Britons, | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
a Bradshaw's was an indispensable guide to a railway network | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
at its peak. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
I'm using an early 20th century edition to navigate a vibrant and | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
optimistic Britain at the height of its power | 0:00:16 | 0:00:19 | |
and influence in the world. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
But a nation wrestling with political, | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
social and industrial unrest at home. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
In 1901, shortly before the publication of my Bradshaw's, | 0:00:56 | 0:01:01 | |
Queen Victoria died after nearly 64 years on the throne. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:06 | |
Her successor Edward VII was hardly a young man, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:10 | |
and yet his accession clearly represented a big change. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:14 | |
He was enormous where she had been petite. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
He was wayward where she had been discreet. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:22 | |
Starting in one of his favourite counties, Norfolk, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
on this rail journey I will embrace Edward and the Edwardians. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:31 | |
My rail journey will take me from | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
aristocratic estates in Norfolk through | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
the university city of Cambridge, onto the high life of the capital. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:47 | |
I'll make my way along the south coast, | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
crossing the Solent to explore the King's childhood | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
on the Isle of Wight. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:53 | |
Returning to the mainland, | 0:01:53 | 0:01:55 | |
I'll experience turn-of-the-century past times in the seaside resorts of | 0:01:55 | 0:02:00 | |
Bournemouth and Poole. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:01 | |
The first leg starts at Cromer. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
My route heads south to the Norfolk Broads at Wroxham, | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
where I'll shoot across to Attleborough | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
and the Quidenham Estate before ending in my alma mater. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
On the way, I learn the ropes on an Edwardian pleasure boat... | 0:02:16 | 0:02:20 | |
Are they up there yet, skipper? | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
-Nearly there. -Heave! Ho! | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
..take a pot shot at the sport of kings... | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
Is this the sort of place His Majesty would have shot? | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
The King would have been probably | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
standing not far from where we are now. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
Pull! | 0:02:35 | 0:02:36 | |
..and, Fred Astaire, watch out, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
as I'm persuaded to put on my dancing shoes to strut my stuff. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
The railways came relatively late to parts of Norfolk. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
As a result, it offered unspoiled resorts, | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
and as these timetables make clear, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
there were good connections to London and other places. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
Bradshaw's says Cromer is one of the few English health resorts that | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
combine country and sea in close proximity, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
which is very restful to the eye. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
More than one Royal personage has been ordered here. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
Cromer was in the same county as Sandringham, | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
which in 1862 had become Edward's country house | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
when he was still Prince of Wales, with the landscape | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
reminding his bride, Alexandra, of her native Denmark. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:36 | |
Lying at the foot of a cliff, Cromer beach has been awarded a blue flag, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:53 | |
meaning it's top quality. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
At the time of my guidebook, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
the town aimed to attract a high class of visitor. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
Indeed, Bradshaw's supplement to the spas and health resorts of | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
Great Britain tells me that, "Cromer has a fine promenade of pier, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
"with an enclosure for 1,000 persons, safe bathing, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
"firm, level sands, boating, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
"fishing, first-class band and theatre, | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
"Royal Cromer golf links, tennis, bowls." | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
Every kind of amusement for the fun-loving Edwardian! | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
I'm meeting Alistair Murphy, curator of Cromer Museum, | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
to find out what made this into a holiday spot fit for a king. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
-Alistair, hello. -Hi. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
So, Cromer is a beautiful place today, | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
but what was its making as an Edwardian resort? | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
Well, the railways didn't get here until 1877, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
and as a result it was a relatively undiscovered part of the coast at a | 0:04:50 | 0:04:56 | |
time when holidays were already pretty well established. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
It meant that Cromer was unspoiled. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
According to my Bradshaw's, there's sailing, | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
there's the royal golf links - it's catering for the upper classes, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
-is that right? -Absolutely. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
In the 1880s, 1890s, even the | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
crowned heads of Europe came to Cromer. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
But with people bathing here, was there any risque element? | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
Cromer may be a trendsetter in that respect. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
If you went to the seaside in the 1880s, 1890s, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
the fathers and the sons would have | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
to go to one end of the beach to bathe, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
and women and daughters would have to go the other end, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
but we think that Cromer was the first place | 0:05:33 | 0:05:35 | |
to allow the indecent behaviour | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
of women and men bathing together. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
We've got records of a local town | 0:05:41 | 0:05:42 | |
council meeting where an elderly member | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
of the council is apoplectic about | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
the idea that mixed bathing should be | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
happening in his seaside resort. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
As the 20th century got into its stride, | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
Cromer acquired something that had become an essential part of the | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
British holiday. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
Alistair, the pier is lovely and very, very well preserved. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
-Is it Edwardian? -It is. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
It was officially opened in 1901. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
I think Cromer, as all the resorts did, | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
looked to see what their competitors were doing and try and better them. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:18 | |
Officiating at the opening ceremony was Lord Claud Hamilton, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
chairman of the Great Eastern Railway - | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
a sure sign of how important trains | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
had become to the town's tourist business. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
Bradshaw's tells me, of course, it has a large theatre. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
It does, although in 1901 there was | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
just a small bandstand to start with. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
This pavilion was built the winter of 1905-06. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
And what sort of entertainment do you think | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
they might have got in those days? | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
Well, when the pavilion opened you would have had variety and | 0:06:46 | 0:06:50 | |
musical and comedy. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
Around that time, | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
bawdy music hall was being | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
rebranded as the more respectable-sounding variety. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:01 | |
Tables and chairs were replaced with theatre-style seating, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
and variety included acrobats, animal acts, | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
jugglers and dancers on the same bill. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
It's a tradition that continues on Cromer Pier today. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
Director of this year's show is Diane Cook. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
Five, six, seven, eight. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
And going into the next dancing section, next tapping section. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
Hello, Di. I'm Michael. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:35 | |
Hi, Michael. Good to see you. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:36 | |
-Hello, Company. -Hello! -So, would you call this variety after all these | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
-years? -It's absolutely still traditional variety, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
but it does have 21st-century content now. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
And is tap still a very big and popular thing? | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
Absolutely, yes. I think it's the rhythms of tap that people like, | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
and it's been around for a long time, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:52 | |
but of course now we're doing it in | 0:07:52 | 0:07:53 | |
a street style, so it's really given it a modern feel. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
How do you start someone on tap? | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
Mostly dancers start at a very early age, but the first... | 0:07:58 | 0:08:03 | |
Slightly younger than you, Michael. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
-Oh, right, OK. Yeah. -But you would start with stamps and rhythms and | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
getting the rhythms together by | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
teaching them how to clap the rhythms, | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
and then they'll start with a stamp, that's the way. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
And then they'll go onto a brush back and stamp. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
That's it now. Brush, back and stamp. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
Brush, back and stamp. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
And then they'll add a hop, shuffle, hop, step, shuffle. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
I feel naked. That's better. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
Here we go. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
Fabulous. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
Here we go. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:37 | |
Take it away, Michael. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:39 | |
I think that deserves a bow, doesn't it? | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
-Well done. -Thank you. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
-Tickets. Hello, there. -Hello. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
From Cromer, I'm taking the train inland, leaving the sea behind, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:21 | |
but not the water. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
I'm heading for the complex of waterways and lakes | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
known as the Norfolk Broads. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
After the naughty titillations of the seaside and the pier, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
I'm feeling broad-minded. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
The capital of the Norfolk Broads, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
Wroxham, is a magnet for visitors planning a day out. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
Modern tourists explore the waterways on motor cruisers, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
but for most Edwardian travellers boating was under sail. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
I'm meeting yacht owner Andrew Scull. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
Hello, are you Andrew? | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
-Hello. I am. -Hello, Michael. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:07 | |
And this is a wherry? | 0:10:07 | 0:10:08 | |
This is Olive - the first of the wherry yachts to be built in 1909. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
Absolutely spectacular. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
-May we go on board? -Of course. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:15 | |
Olive was named after the daughter of boat builder Ernest Collins, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
who was based in Wroxham. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
Andrew, what are the Norfolk Broads? | 0:10:25 | 0:10:26 | |
They are a couple of principal rivers, the Bure, | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
on which we are sailing today, and the Yare. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:32 | |
Yare being "Yaremouth," Yarmouth. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
But the rest were peat diggings from medieval times, | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
which essentially filled with water. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:39 | |
And they were very useful for navigation? | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
Indeed, in those days lots of the villages were in need of various | 0:10:41 | 0:10:46 | |
products, so the things that the trading wherries would carry, | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
it would be coal, grain, cloth, | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
and they were designed to be able to be sailed by just one person. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
When the railways arrived in the late 19th century, | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
they could move cargo more quickly and cheaply, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
but the resourceful wherrymen just moved sideways into leisure. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:08 | |
And the railways that had ruined the cargo trade now began to bring | 0:11:08 | 0:11:12 | |
holiday-makers to the Norfolk Broads. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
In Edwardian times, were tourists coming and they | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
were able to ride for pleasure on the wherries? | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
They were, and as more and more came, the wherry yacht came into | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
existence, which was essentially designed | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
for carrying holiday-makers. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
So, we've got the use of a skipper and also crew, | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
who when they weren't attending to the duties of sailing the boat, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
would be providing meals and serving the visitors who came. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
So the visitors had a choice of | 0:11:39 | 0:11:40 | |
doing as much or as little as they wanted to do onboard. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
Now, we are drifting around very nicely but we have a sail? | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
-Indeed. -Should we put it up? | 0:11:47 | 0:11:48 | |
Let's do that. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
Michael, can I introduce you to Jerry? | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
-Jerry, Michael. -I'm Michael, indeed. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
So, what do we have to do here? | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
Basically, we need to pick up a winch handle each. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
You have yours pointed downwards, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
I'll have mine pointing upwards, and then we need to wind roughly the | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
same speed, exerting a little bit of | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
inward pressure so the winch handle doesn't come off. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
-OK. -Basically, We keep going until the skipper tells us to stop. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
OK. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:15 | |
The sail is going up. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
-A bit harder. -When you can do it with two hands. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:30 | |
Right. Let me know when. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
OK. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:33 | |
Two hands. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
Is it not up there yet, skipper? | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
Nearly there. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:44 | |
-Nearly there. -It's getting hard. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
Heave! Ho! | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
That'll do, thank you. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:53 | |
That was good exercise. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:55 | |
Look at that. What a beautiful craft. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
Exquisite. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
You can see the Edwardian attraction in it, can't you? | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
Far from the madding crowd, far from the old smoke of London. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
Absolutely delightful, especially on a day like this. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
Really lovely. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:17 | |
-Bye, Andrew. -Bye-bye, Michael. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:24 | |
Thank you. Skipper, bye. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
Goodbye. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:27 | |
-Bye-bye now. -Bye-bye. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
BRASS BAND PLAYS | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
Brass bands became popular in the mid-19th century. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
And by the early 20th century, there were thousands, | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
all over the country. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:54 | |
It was truly a golden age of brass. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:58 | |
HE APPLAUDS | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
Bravo! The Norfolk Wherry Brass. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
And why are you called the Norfolk Wherry Brass? | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
Wherry ties everything together in Norfolk. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
A form of transport, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:14 | |
because many of these people come from different parts of Norfolk. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
And the wherry connects you all. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
And what was that piece you are playing? | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
That was a march called Viscount Nelson. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
-And what's the connection? -Nelson, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
of course, was born in Norfolk and learnt to sail | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
on Barton Broad very close to here. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
Are you telling me that the Battle of Trafalgar | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
was won on the sailing broads of | 0:14:33 | 0:14:34 | |
-Norfolk? -Absolutely. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
I rejoin the train at Hoveton and Wroxham station, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:50 | |
bidding farewell to the Broads. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
I'm on the Bittern line, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
which takes its name from a species | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
of heron found in the reedy wetlands. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
A golden evening caps a beautiful summer's day, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
and I'm going to spend the night in Norwich. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
At the time of my Bradshaw's, Norwich had not one, | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
but three railway stations, drawing lines from all corners of Norfolk. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:24 | |
It was, until the Industrial Revolution, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
the largest city in England after London, | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
with the Norman Cathedral at its heart. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
An advertisement in my Bradshaw's has drawn me to the | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
Maids' Head Hotel. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
"County hotel of Norfolk, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
"for 500 years," and this was written 100 years ago. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:44 | |
"Sanitary certificate in every room." | 0:15:44 | 0:15:48 | |
Irresistible. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:49 | |
I'll be leaving this train at Attleborough, headed for Quidenham. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
The standard newspaper in October | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
1909 tells me that the little village, | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
one of the prettiest in Norfolk, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
was all agog because of the visit of His Majesty the King. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:35 | |
He travelled from London by special train and when he descended from the | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
royal saloon he was a picture of good health. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
There was very good shooting at Quidenham, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
but now that I look at the guest list, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
present were the honourable George and Mrs Keppel. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
Now, she was the king's devoted mistress, | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
so at Quidenham there was a target | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
even more important than the partridge | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
that fell victim to his majestic marksmanship. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
King Edward VII already owned a Norfolk estate at Sandringham, | 0:17:14 | 0:17:19 | |
bought for him by Queen Victoria when he turned 21. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
He became a regular visitor at Quidenham, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:34 | |
home of the eighth Earl of Albermarle, | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
Arnold Keppel. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:38 | |
Today, you don't have to be royalty to shoot here - | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
the grounds are open to the paying public. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
I'm meeting gamekeeper Robert Brown. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
Robert, Quidenham Hall presents a fine facade, impressive building. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
What would this scene have been like, do you think, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
when King Edward VII visited? | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
Well, the Hall itself pretty much has not changed, but in front of us, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
people lined the roadside with flags, torches, | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
bunting in the hedges. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
It would have been a very impressive site, I would have thought. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
And if it was a royal weekend, how | 0:18:07 | 0:18:08 | |
much shooting would there be, do you think? | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
Well, they normally shot for two-three days, consecutive days. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
And that takes a lot of organisation? | 0:18:14 | 0:18:15 | |
Yes. You can imagine the amount of staff that they would have had. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
Two teams of beaters, 25 on each, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
head keeper on the horse directing everything. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
It must have been like a military operation. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
A regular presence at the shooting parties | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
was Lord Albermarle's sister-in-law. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
On the guest list was Alice Keppel. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
Yes. She would have come up here with her husband | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
and she was the king's | 0:18:40 | 0:18:42 | |
-mistress. -And what do you know of her? | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
She was a very beautiful woman, very popular. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
Pretty convenient for the king, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
to combine two of his great interests in life. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
Probably. Yeah, I think they had to be given time, shall we say. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
I'm going to try my luck with some clay pigeons. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
It's my opportunity to walk in the footsteps of King Edward VII. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:05 | |
Is this the sort of place His Majesty would have shot? | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
Yeah, this would have been one of the pheasant drives. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
The king would have been probably | 0:19:14 | 0:19:15 | |
standing not far from where we are now. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
Well, although I carried this gun, I thought, rather skilfully, | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
I don't actually know how to use it. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
But would you...? Shall we have a little go? | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
Yeah, certainly. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:26 | |
Cartridges in. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
-What's that thing there? -Safety catch. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
Push forward when you're ready and it's live. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
It's all loaded. Ready? | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
Safety catch on. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:41 | |
How do I pull the trigger? Do you squeeze it or...? | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
You want to give it a good snatch. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:46 | |
-A good snatch. -Yes. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
Pull. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
No luck on that one. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
You've actually hit it but it didn't smash. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
-I hit it? -The second one, yes. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
I hit it! | 0:20:08 | 0:20:09 | |
Let's have another go. Safety catch on. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
Again, slide it forward when you're ready. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:18 | |
OK. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
Pull. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:21 | |
Yes. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:26 | |
I'm so pleased. I can't tell you how pleased I am. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
How did I hit that? That's amazing. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
Maybe I was to the manor born. What do you think? | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
Well done. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:40 | |
And just like the king, who loved his food and drink, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
after my sporting triumph, I'm ready for a pick-me-up. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
A sloe gin with some fizz for you. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
-Good health. -Thank you very much. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
-Why sloe gin? -Very traditional. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:56 | |
It's what the king would have had on a shoot. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
And we serve it at elevenses on all our shoots. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
Elevenses. Here we go. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:03 | |
Good health. Cheers. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
-Thank you, Robert. -Cheers. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
Sloe gin, but it gets through you quickly, doesn't it? | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
-Marvellous. -Hits the spot. It's what you need. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
And we have a selection of savoury treats here, | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
some home-made sausage rolls, some tartlets. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
Home cooking, absolutely delicious. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
Wonderful. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:26 | |
Well, Robert, to our... | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
..success. Very surprising in my case. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
Well shot. Well shot. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:34 | |
On the final leg of my journey, I'm travelling from rural East Anglia to | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
a world-famous centre of academia. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
The career of King Edward VII now leads me to Cambridge because he was | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
an undergraduate there. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
But I'm also in pursuit of a novelist | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
who links the Edwardian era with my own, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
because just shortly before I went to the university, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
there died an old man | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
who had been a resident of King's College, Cambridge, for decades. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
The extraordinary EM Forster. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
Cambridge is dominated by its university, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
made up of 31 separate colleges scattered around the city centre. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:46 | |
The Prince of Wales - then known as Bertie, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
and already something of a ladies' man - | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
arrived here to study in 1861. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
The future King Edward VII studied here at Trinity College, Cambridge. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:03 | |
Rumours circulated of an affair with an actress in Ireland. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:08 | |
His father, Prince Albert, though ill, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
travelled to Cambridge to remonstrate | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
with the heir to the throne. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
On his return to London, Albert's health deteriorated, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
and within three weeks he was dead. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
A distraught Queen Victoria would always feel | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
that her promiscuous son was | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
partly responsible for the death of her beloved husband. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:31 | |
36 years later at nearby King's College, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
the future best-selling author of | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
A Room With A View and Howards End, Edward Morgan Forster, | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
arrived to study classics. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
-Hello, Peter. -Very nice to meet you. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
I'm Michael. Good to see you. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
I've come to meet fellow of King's and Forster expert Peter Jones | 0:23:52 | 0:23:57 | |
in the shadow of the hallowed King's College Chapel. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
When a very young EM Forster first comes to Cambridge, to King's, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:05 | |
what sort of a person is he? | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
He would have been very shy. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
His mother brought him up and she kept him very sheltered, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
and he went to a public school but he wasn't really comfortable there, | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
he didn't make many friends, | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
so King's was for him a big opening up of his life | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
and a chance to make friends. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
What sort of a place was King's when he came here? | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
In the middle of the 19th century, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
it would still have been a college for old Etonians. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
In 1861, the college said they were going to take everybody, | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
so King's expanded hugely. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
This opened the place up to all kinds of influences | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
that had not been there before. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
How did Forster feel about religion? | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
I don't think he had any faith. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
It was something of a relief to him to find his tutor was an atheist and | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
immediately that led Forster to feel relaxed. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
He didn't have to show that he was Christian. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
And for much of his life he was a humanist, wasn't he? | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
Yes, that's right, the sort of faith he professed later as a liberal | 0:24:54 | 0:24:59 | |
individualist was very much what he | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
imbibed at King's, because that was the ethos here. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:05 | |
Steeped in this radical atmosphere, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
the young Forster began to explore | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
the big themes that would run through his writing. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
We have two of his student diaries. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
You can see the crest of King's College | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
and then underneath EMF on each of them. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
And the year - 1898 and 1899. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
And if we look inside, we are in November 1899. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:33 | |
"Ainsworth came in and ate bacon. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
"Then he and Meredith argued about beauty." | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
It shows that he's beginning to | 0:25:39 | 0:25:40 | |
relax enough to talk with his friends | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
about serious matters. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
Love, beauty, friendship. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
And here we see some of the novels, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
with which we're so familiar. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
That's right. The Edwardian period of Forster's novel writing, | 0:25:50 | 0:25:54 | |
he's building on his experiences in Cambridge and you get a sequence of | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
novels - The Longest Journey, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
and then A Room With A View, and finally Howards End in 1910. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
He became somebody who was willing to express | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
a very liberal and humanist view. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
In Forster's novels, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
liberal idealists come up against the rigid conventions of class-bound | 0:26:14 | 0:26:19 | |
Edwardian society. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
With human relationships at their core, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
they continue to appeal to modern readers. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
Why do you think so many of the novels have been filmed? | 0:26:28 | 0:26:32 | |
Film-makers find the romance plots | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
and the swishier Edwardian dresses and cars | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
and so on very attractive, so they can make a kind of heritage movie | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
and all of those things - they're not really what he felt | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
-he was about as a novelist. -Yes. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:48 | |
Although they have had the effect of making his novels popular again. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:52 | |
The Norfolk Broads wherry was a | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
large boat designed for one-man operation, | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
but I find a Cambridge punt enough of a challenge for me. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:23 | |
Whilst Edwardians enjoyed the | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
sauciness of the theatre and of the beach, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
their monarch was enjoying shooting and Alice Keppel. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:33 | |
EM Forster, in one of his novels, describes undergraduate life with | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
the college providing a servant to | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
make your bed, but goes on to argue that the | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
real privilege of Cambridge was, for | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
a few years, to be surrounded by the | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
greatest minds of your time. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
Next time, I discover a new era of | 0:28:00 | 0:28:02 | |
tunnelling deep beneath the capital... | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
Every 45 minutes we can get another 1.5 metres completed. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:10 | |
..I tip the scales at a historic wine merchant... | 0:28:10 | 0:28:12 | |
I've obviously misjudged you, Michael, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
because I can see that actually you're a lot | 0:28:15 | 0:28:17 | |
lighter than I thought you were and I apologise. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
..and get on my bike in Lycra. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
-That was great. -Whoa! | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 |