Gateway to history

Sudha Jhunjhunwala travels to Cambridge and comes back wishing she could study there in her next birth

Set up by Henry VI, King’s College is the jewel in the Cambridge crown

We set out to tour East Anglia, using Cambridge as a gateway to explore the beauties of this famous part of England. So much has been written and visually portrayed on Cambridge that I doubt if any educated person is unaware of the town. However, I take the liberty of paying homage to a favourite place where I hope to study in my next birth.

Occupied from Neolithic times, with ascending layers of Roman, Saxon and Norman settlements, this University town as it stands today, came into being with the founding of Peter House by the Bishop of Ely in 1284. With the munificence of kings and religious orders, the following 700 years saw the establishment of architectural gems such as Queens, Trinity, Magdalene, St. Johns, Clare, Jesus and Emmanuel.

The jewel in the crown, however, is King’s College with its crowning glory of the chapel. It was born out of the royal patronage of King Henry VI, who will be forever remembered in the English-speaking world for his magnificent contributions of Eton and Cambridge — the premier centres of learning in England to this day.

The Chapel of King’s College which took nearly a century to build, wears the mantle of its antiquity with great dignity and beauty. It boasts of the largest as well as the most breath-taking fan-vault in the world; a dark oak-screen inscribed by Henry VIII himself; as well as the spectacular "Adoration of the Magi" by the great Reuben placed behind the altar, under exquisite stained-glass windows.

It was time to leave the beauties of Cambridge, and we headed for Buy St. Edmunds, the main town of East Anglia, in order to explore Norfolk and Suffolk — names coined from commonly-used terms of ‘North Folk and South Folk’. The town is also the birth place of the famous charter of Magna Carta signed on November 20, 1214. Charles Dickens described it thus — "a handsome little town of thriving appearance" and stayed at the Angel Hotel while writing Pickwick Papers. His room is maintained in its original form to this day.

Fortunately, we stayed at this charming ivy-clad hotel which opens out to a panorama of brightly flowering public gardens, towering Norman gateways restored and beautifully lit and the St. Edmunds bury Cathedral.

The next day, we set out to explore the "wool towns" of Suffolk— the repository of beautiful old towns established due to the boom in wool and textile trade in the 14th and 15th centuries. The first such "wool town" was Clare, followed by Cavendish, Long Melford, Lavenham, Kersey, Hadleigh and Sudbury. All of them were quaint with a mixture of Tudor, Queen Anne, Georgian and Victorian houses lining the streets. Many of them have "Wool Churches" and almost all have manor-houses, pubs, alms-houses and hosteleries surrounding the village greens.

We finally drove through the Stour valley, which can justifiably claim to be the birth place of English land-scape painting. Both the renowned artists John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough were born here, as well as practiced their art here.

The next day was dedicated to Norfolk. The unfolding vistas of the country-side — sometimes green with barley; at others gold with ripening wheat; yet at times red with poppy, yellow with rape and blue with flax were an incredible sight. If viewed from the air, it would surely depict a stunningly beautiful tapestry of colours!

The first town we came to was Newmarket — a name that resounds in the horse-racing world; followed by King’s Lynn in praise of which Hillaire Belloc said "......all the roofs of Lynn and all its pavements are worthy of individual names." It was the foremost port in the 11th century and traded with the Hanseatic League, a confederation of Baltic & Rhineland cities. The last of these impressive towns was Sandringham — the country retreat of the Royal Family of England, set in 60 acres of beautiful grounds and lakes.

The famous landscape painter John Constable, said of Suffolk "......its luxuriant meadow-flats sprinkled with flocks and herds, its well cultivated uplands, its woods and rivers, with farms and picturesque cottages........".

I would like to add that the beauty and tranquility of both Norfolk and Suffolk made a deep impression on us and we went after having added many more pages to our album of beautiful memories.

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