"Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists."
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson
A premier city of Europe since the Romans founded Aquae Sulis - the therapeutic springs of Roman Britain and the old Roman baths can still be seen. However, the warm toned Bath stone city of today is pre-eminently an 18th century creation with dramatic, breathtaking examples of Georgian architecture.
The name "Cotswolds" is derived from the word for the stone sheep shelters or "cots" - plus the word "wold" for rolling hills. This tells us about a time in the past when sheep were the mainstay of the economy.
Bristol grew up in Saxon times at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Frome. A bridge was built there and the settlement was known as Briggstow. The local dialect caused an 'L' to be added to the end of this - hence Bristol
The most westerly town in Dorset is also one of its more popular. Situated at the mouth of the little river Lym, Lyme is first mentioned in 774 in connection with a manor and salt rights granted by the West Saxon King Cynolf to Sherborne Abbey. In the Doomsday Book Lyme was divided into three manors. It became Lyme Regis in 1284 when it was granted a royal charter by Edward I.
The Cotswolds name is applied to a high escarpment running north from the outskirts of Bath and petering out somewhere near the borders of Worcestershire. Along that ridge, and in the valleys that radiate out from it, lie some of the prettiest, most "English" villages in the entire country.
Because of its position, Dover controls the English Channel and is known as the "Lock and Key of England." Julius Caesar tried to land at Dover during the Roman Invasion of 55 BC and it was the prime objective of the invasion plans of William the Conqueror, Napoleon and Hitler.
Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primate of the Church of England.
Its cathedral is the burial place of King Henry IV and of Edward the Black Prince, but is most famous as the scene of the murder of Thomas à Becket in 1170.
