Geography Of The United Kingdom

"England, we love thee better than we know— And this I learned, when after wanderings long ’Mid people of another stock and tongue, I heard again thy martial music blow, And saw thy gallant children to and fro Pace, keeping ward at one of those huge gates, Which like twin giants watch the Herculean straits: When first I came in sight of that brave show, It made my very heart within me dance, To think that thou thy proud foot shouldst advance Forward so far into the mighty sea; Joy was it and exultation to behold Thine ancient standard’s rich emblazonry, A glorious picture by the wind unrolled."

"Seven weeks of sea, and twice seven days of storm Upon the huge Atlantic, and once more We ride into still water and the calm Of a sweet evening, screen’d by either shore Of Spain and Barbary. Our toils are o’er, Our exile is accomplish’d. Once again We look on Europe, mistress as of yore Of the fair earth and of the hearts of men. Ay, this is the famed rock which Hercules And Goth and Moor bequeath’d us. At this door England stands sentry. God! to hear the shrill Sweet treble of her fifes upon the breeze, And at the summons of the rock gun’s roar To see her red coats marching from the hill!"

"We have never asked for recognition, and we’ve never felt the need to ask for recognition. You don’t have to have recognition to be a state, you just have to fulfill the criteria of the Montevideo Convention which is population, territory, government and the capacity to enter into negotiation with other states. We can and we have done all these things. We’ve had the German ambassador visit at one point to discuss something: that was de-facto recognition. We’ve had communication with the president of France many years ago, but we have never asked for recognition and we don’t feel we need it."

"The history of Sealand is a story of a struggle for liberty."

"E Mare Libertas"

"My sons enjoy being involved in it, it gives them an interesting life and they meet interesting people."

"With my new grandson Prince Freddy being fourth generation Sealander its future will be assured."

"Ships have allowed groups ranging from cheerfully illicit pirate radio stations to socially committed abortion providers, like Women On Waves, to avoid local laws. [...] It is the less instrumentalist iterations that inspire the imagination. Occasionally, in a spirit of can-do contrarianism, some offshore spit or rig has been designated an independent country, such as Sealand, a sea-tower-based nation with no permanent inhabitants on Britain’s Suffolk coast."

"When I was first there I was 14 years old, there was no mobile telephones, no communication at all. You would go there and be there until the boat came back in two weeks to get you. And it might not come back for six weeks. You would stare at the horizon waiting for it to come back."

"There'll be blue birds over The white cliffs of Dover; Tomorrow, just you wait and see."

"The sea did what it liked, and what it liked was destruction. It thundered at the town, and thundered at the cliffs, and brought the coast down, madly."

"I want our children to grow up enjoying the taste of British apples as well as Cornish sardines, Norfolk turkey, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Wensleydale cheese, Herefordshire pears and of course black pudding."

"We have Celtic cousins in Brittany, Galicia and Cornwall. Our is a heritage shared in a love of music and song, of poetry - and a special affinity with the sea and with nature."

"Cornwall has the strongest regional identity in the UK."

"One generation has set Cornish on its feet. It is now for another to make it walk."

"There is no reason why there should not be an Assembly, serving the historic nation/region of Cornwall."

"As political diseases are naturally contagious, let it be supposed, for a moment, that Cornwall, seized with the Philadelphian phrensy, may resolve to separate itself from the general system of the English constitution, and judge of its own rights in its own parliament. A congress might then meet at Truro, and address the other counties in a style not unlike the language of the American patriots. ... We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Britain, of men, who, before the time of history, took possession of the island desolate and waste, and, therefore, open to the first occupants. Of this descent, our language is a sufficient proof, which, not quite a century ago, was different from yours."

"There has never been a time when there has been no person in Cornwall without a knowledge of the Cornish language."

"Why should Cornishmen learn Cornish? There is no money in it, it serves no practical purpose, and the literature is scanty and of no great originality or value. The question is a fair one, the answer is simple. Because they are Cornish."

"Historically, there was no road heading east out of Cornwall, but they had all these sea routes to the rest of the world, trading, alliances. I see Cornwall as an outward-looking place."

"England is ...divided into 3 great Provinces, or Countries ...every of them speaking a several and different language, as English, Welsh and Cornish."

"I have gained very great inspiration from the Cornish land- and seascape, the horizontal line of the sea and the quality of light and colour which reminds me of the Mediterranean light and colour which so excites one’s sense of form; and first and last there is the human figure which in the country becomes a free and moving part of a greater whole. This relationship between figure and landscape is vitally important to me. I cannot feel it in a city."

"And have they fixed the where and when? And shall Trelawney die? Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Shall know the reason why!"

"An awful lot of people have childhood memories of holidays in Cornwall, and the holidays are old-fashioned and hugely successful. You stick a child and a dog on one of the beaches, and they just light up; they just love it."

"Cornwall is one of the most beautiful places, with great people - there's not a great downside to it."

"Cornwall, peopled mainly by Celts, but with an infusion of English blood, stands and always has stood apart from the rest of England, much, but in a less degree, as has Wales."

"the whole Countrie of Britain ...is divided into iiii partes; whereof the one is inhabited of Englishmen, the other of Scottes, the third of Wallshemen, [and] the fowerthe of Cornishe people, which all differ emonge them selves, either in tongue, ...in manners, or ells in lawes and ordinaunces."

"Thy road, my Biggleswade, deserving draws From the pleas'd traveller his just applause; Nor less the lucid stream that laves thy side Deck'd in the flowing pomp of ready pride; Wether for gain, or in the finny line For on thy eels, good gods, how we did dine!"

"One of the greatest markets in England for barley."

"Biggleswade, the next market town we visited, is situated in a most pleasent manner, on the banks of the river Ivel, over which there is a good stone bridge and lighters come up with coal to the town."

"With the revival of the popularity of the road in the pursuit of healthful and enjoyable exercise,cycli ng, a new era of prosperity has set in for the old town … now the favourite rendevous of wheelmen from all parts on tour through the district."

"The neat and respectable appearance of the town may in a great measure be ascribed to a terrible fire that happended upon the 16th June 1785."

"The Church was built in 1230. The parishoners are free tenants and all have equal rights to any of the seats. Thus it should ever be. In the sight of god all distinctions are levelled. For this privilege however the inhabitants are constrained to repair and rebuild the church when necessary."

"Biggleswade after all for my money. with its young Rabbits, and silver eels; a sandy flat soil to ride upon."

"Pleasantly situated on the Ivel and furnished with commodious Inns."

"There are still parts of Wales where the only concession to gaiety is a striped shroud."

"The people of Snowdon assert that even if their prince should give seisin of them to the king, they themselves would refuse to do homage to any foreigner, of whose language, customs and laws they were thoroughly ignorant."

"Nec alia, ut arbitror, gens quam haec Kambrica, aliave lingua, in die districti examinis coram Judice supremo, quicquid de ampliori contingat, pro hoc terrarum angulo respondebit."

"[Y]ours is an ancient language, and the language is connected with an ancient history, and it is connected with an ancient music and with an ancient literature... [Y]our laudable and patriotic efforts will come to be more and more understood and regarded by the English people at large, and that prosperity and honour will attend the meetings by which you endeavour to preserve and to commemorate the ancient history, the ancient deeds, and the ancient literature of your country, the Principality of Wales."

"I affirm that Welsh nationality is as great a reality as English nationality. It may not be as big a reality in that it does not extend over so large a country, but with the traditions and history of Wales, with the language of Wales (hear, hear), with the religion of Wales (cheers), with the feelings of Wales, I maintain that the Welsh nationality is as true as the nationality of Scotland, to which by blood I exclusively belong."

"The Welsh made a very good and a very hard fight against the English in self-defence, and what was the consequence? That the English were obliged to surround your territory with great castles; and the effect of this has been that, as far as I can reckon, more by far than one-half of the great remains of the castles in the whole island south of the Tweed are castles that surround Wales. That shows that Wales was inhabited by men, and by men who valued and were disposed to struggle for their liberties."

"On the other edge of Europe, in the countryside of Wales, another formidable weapon against men and horses was being perfected. The English kings began to appreciate the possibilities of the Welsh longbow in their twelfth-century wars in Wales when Welsh archers with six-foot bows, taller than they were, fired arrows that could go through layers of chain mail, wooden saddles and flesh. In 1346, during the Hundred Years War between the French and the English, Edward III brought his Welsh archers to France. At Crécy a much weaker English force turned to fight the pursuing French. The French had three times as many mounted soldiers, considered the finest cavalry in Europe, 6,000 Genoese crossbowmen and 20,000 foot soldiers against 5,000. The English, however, had 11,000 archers armed with longbows. The Genoese fired first but did not inflict much damage on the English army. As the Genoese scrambled to reload, French knights, impatient for glory, started to trample them from behind, while the English archers launched a devastating fire. As one witness said, ‘Every arrow told on horse or man, piercing head, or arm, or leg among the riders and sending the horses mad.’ The French knights charged again and again, while the Welsh archers steadily reloaded and fired. By nightfall the ground was covered with dead and dying horses and men. The French lost over 1,500 knights and 10,000 who were ‘not of gentle blood’. The English losses were two knights, forty ‘others’ and some ‘few dozen’ Welsh. The unchallenged dominance of knights on the battlefield started to die there too."

"The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it."

"Years and years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the colour of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlours, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed."

"All right, I was Welsh. Does it matter? I spoke a tongue that was passed on To me in the place I happened to be, A place huddled between grey walls Of cloud for at least half the year. My word for heaven was not yours. The word for hell had a sharp edge Put on it by the hand of the wind Honing, honing with a shrill sound Day and night. Nothing that Glyn Dwr Knew was armour against the rain's Missiles. What was descent from him?"

"Even God had a Welsh name: He spoke to him in the old language; He was to have a peculiar care For the Welsh people. History showed us He was too big to be nailed to the wall Of a stone chapel, yet still we crammed him Between the boards of a black book."

"You are Welsh, they said; Speak to us so; keep your fields free Of the smell of petrol, the loud roar Of hot tractors; we must have peace And quietness."

"Here is beauty indeed – Beauty lying in the lap of Horrour!"

"The trees of Lakeland contribute much to the matchless beauty of the district, and indeed it would be difficult to imagine the setting of some of the lakes and many of the valleys without them."

"Your sport, my Lord, I cannot take, For I must go and hunt a lake; And while you chase the flying deer, I must fly off to Windermere. Instead of hallooing to a fox, I must catch echoes from the rocks; With curious eye and active scent, I on the Picturesque am bent."