Page 47 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

BRIT AIN AND IRELAND  45

GREAT BRITAIN

Separated from the rest of Europe by the English Channel, Britain has been
assiduous in preserving its traditions. However, the island can offer the visitor
much more than stately castles and pretty villages. A diversity of landscape,
culture, literature, art, and architecture, as well as a unique heritage, results
in a nation balancing the needs of the present with those of the past.

Britain’s character has been shaped by The long, broad beaches of East
its geographical position as an island. Anglia contrast with the rocky inlets
Never successfully invaded again after along much of the west coast.
1066, the country has developed its Despite the spread of towns and
own distinctive traditions, and although cities over the last two centuries, rural
today a member of the European Union, Britain still flourishes. The countryside
Britain continues to delight in its is dotted with farms and charming
nonconformity. Britain’s heritage can villages with picturesque cottages and
be seen in its ancient castles, cathedrals, lovingly tended gardens. The most
and stately homes, with their gardens prosperous and densely populated
and parklands. It is also evident in the part of the nation is the southeast,
many age-old customs played out across close to London, where modern office
the nation throughout the year. buildings bear witness to the growth
For a small island, Great Britain of service and high-tech industries.
encompasses a surprising variety in its
regions, whose inhabitants maintain History
distinct identities. Scotland and Wales Britain began to assume a cohesive
are separate countries from England, character as early as the 7th century AD,
with their own legislative assemblies. as Anglo-Saxon tribes migrating from
They also have their own surviving the continent absorbed existing Celtic
Gaelic languages and unique traditions. and Roman influences and finally
The landscape is varied, too, from the achieved supremacy in England.
mountains of Wales, Scotland, and the However, they suffered repeated Viking
north, through the flat expanses of the incursions and were overcome by the
Midlands and eastern England, to the Normans at the Battle of Hastings in 1066,
soft, rolling hills of the south and west. when William the Conqueror founded the

Punting on the River Cherwell, Oxford
Fantastical gargoyles looking out from the Natural History Museum, London

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