England Old and New Part 1 by Robert Fullarton Copyright 2016 Robert Fullarton

England Old and New Part 1

by Robert Fullarton

Copyright 2016 Robert Fullarton

I see England as a country that has changed much over the centuries. It is a country that lives still in its industrial shadow, a country whose wide-reaching colonialism had severe repercussions in the long-run. England is a country of deep rooted secular ideals (a pinup for modern ethnic and cultural diversity) in contrast to the nation that prided itself on Church and empire, whose red-coated army led the 7th coalition against Napoleon, who became masters of trade, a nation of great social divide, a bastion for conservatism and yet one of eager socialism. I wanted to see the London of William Blake and William Turner, the sunset impressions that Monet painted by the wharfs of London, but I was very naive to think that much of this old romanticism still lingered on.

I don’t particularly like London that much. I find it to be at times to be an Orwellian open air museum of diverse nations cramped together, with claustrophobic metro stations, with a hustle and bustle of people that intensifies during the rush hour, with massive skylines that stretch for miles around, it is a modern metropolis that seems to include every belief and ideal under the sun. I have found that the English culture itself has been muted and sort of degraded in a post-cultural and post-imperial England. There are of course the beautiful and rather ostentatious quarters of Kensington and Notting Hill, the fine museums (including the National Gallery of Art, which I found to be the most impressive I have ever laid eyes on!) and the quaint well managed gardens (the little oases of the metropolis) of Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James.

England like Germany has been modernised, secularised and diversified and yet there are remains of the old civilization and the old way of life that endured there for centuries. I can also state quite passionately (and I hope to write on this topic in particular) that in an overpopulated and a rather industrial nation there are national parks and wildlife areas that will amaze you. The English are more protective of their wildlife than the Irish are (I have certainly seen the work of the RSPB and they are a credit to the environment) and have managed to preserve more acres of land and diverse habitat than the Irish Government have for the local Ecology services.

My brother John lived in Ealing in London for over four years working in the Irish embassy near Buckingham Palace. I would go over about twice a year to visit him, mostly on my own and on occasion with family. London immediately stood out as an alien place, big, foreboding, modern and very pricey (due in part to the horrific conversion rate against the British Pound). Despite the modern changes and ethos of the city, I enjoyed venturing out into the old English countryside or to the historical landmarks of the City.

I remember going to the Barnes Wildlife Reserve (just a short bus ride outside Hammersmith in West London) and finding an impressive habitat, perfectly preserved and well managed for a diversity of wildlife. You have the heaths, shrubs, fens and the diversity of flora with a great diversity of birdlife, insects and toads living in a wonderfully managed ecosystem.

Me and my brother were walking over various wooden bridges and pontoons facing a system of canals and little swamps on a summer’s day in the middle of June. I gazed upon my first Jay that perched upon a post, tame and proud, it stared back in comfort, intrepid to the approaches we made that day. Terns nested and gathered food for their chicks that lay across one of the large canals that lay before us. The Hobby and the kestrel were hunting and swooping from above on their hapless prey bellow. A great variety of ducks and geese could be counted and spotted along the banks, along with several introduced Demoiselle Cranes (Which were a wonder to have beheld). One man was out with his camera recording the sound of the toads croaking deep beneath the layers of muck. I had not seen such a distribution of wildlife for some time, and on that day, I had seen more species of bird than I had for years on end.

This reserve is a perfect spot to watch for raptors, summer migrants coming from Africa, spoonbills, Egrets and even the impressive booming Bittern. There are many great enclaves of natural life, found scattered here and there throughout London (such as the wonderful Richmond Park) that have an abundance to offer those who want to escape from the madness of the metropolis.

I found this location to be particularly more satisfying than the forest at Epping, which has a horrible road going through it, dissecting the park in two and which requires a taxi or a car to reach. Though if you are going to Epping Forest, be sure to allocate some time to see it properly as it is a huge park that fringes on various different villages and covers several habitats in one. It is a park that is filled with ancient oak, where writers came to be inspired and were you can watch Muntjac deer and listen out for the sound of the Green Woodpecker drumming away.