Stonehenge, Barrows and Austen’s Bath with Scotland The Brave

Scotland the Brave flew all the way from Perth in Western Australia to London. After two days of exploring London he and the Guardians boarded their tour bus and set off to see Scotland, or so Scotty thought**. To his dismay the bus went the wrong way! He consulted his maps. They were travelling west instead of north!

TIP: If looking on a tiny little phone, click on the pics to make them bigger.

But the Guardians were unfazed. They had a Plan, they said. We will see Scotland later, Scotty, they said. First, they would see Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains, they said.

A Henge of Stone: They travelled from London to the west for quite some time then arrived at some large rocks piled up in a certain way in the middle of the undulating Sailsbury plains . Scotty learned that this was called a Henge. It was made of Stone.

The Henge: thousands of years ago, people gathered together here to build the Henge made of Stone. Before that they had built henges of mostly timber and dirt and ditches and causeways. The purpose of it all, as far as wise people and archaeologists can tell, was for people of those far off times to, errr, gather. And, having gathered, they then built these ditches, causeways and henges. For somewhere to gather. Hmmm. It all seemed a bit circular to Scotty, as too was this particular henge. It is a roughly circular henge. Of stone.

So far as Scotty could see, lots of people were still gathering here. So at least that part of the whole idea had been effective. There were several bus loads of people and also people from cars and camper vans, all gathering here. They walked around the stone circle taking pictures of it and of each other and lots of “selfies’. So our Scotland the Brave took some “Scotties” too.

There were also, in the lands stretching all around, some lumpy bits. The lumps are called Barrows. They are not like wheelbarrows at all. They are mounds of dirt where important people of those far off Bronze Age days were buried. If you big-en-in the photo below, err, zoom in on it and look close closely, you should make out at least five barrows. Can you see them?

BATH: After looking at Stonehenge, the Guardians got back on the bus and set off for Bath. Scotty was nervous. Was he expected to bathe at Bath? Was ‘Bath’ one huge bath tub? What dreadful fate involving soap awaited him there?

Bath did indeed have a very old bath tub made by the Romans long ago. To Scotty’s great relief, no-one took baths in it anymore, possibly because it was now a murky green (from algae).

They just looked at it (and took Selfies of course) and admired the statues of old Romans and the fine old building with really old tiles on it. Really, really old, like 2000 years old. Which is old, even for England.

Apparently, the Romans would pause in the middle of some very unpleasant conquering, for instance, of Britain, in order to have a bath in the hot water from the springs here. Scotty thought this to be odd behaviour, especially the Conquering. But then again, People are baffling. They completely baffle bears.

There is a river called Avon with long thin boats on it. They are thin so they can go down thin rivers and canals. There was a splendid old bridge, called Pulteney Bridge, and a lot of elegant Georgian buildings built around the 1770’s when a chap called George was King-ing and giving his name to a whole architectural style.

Many people were milling about the bridge and the buildings and the cathedral and the baths. Tip for fellow travellers: do not visit Bath on a sunny weekends just after the Glastonbury Festival. Its so packed with people you can hardly move.

JANE AUSTEN: This is the magnificent Cathedral at Bath. Just imagine: in this very square and among these buildings walked Jane Austen and her family. Scotty knows about Jane Austen because the Teddettes Jane Austen Book Club bears are great fans of her books. (Here are the Teddettes, reading her books). Apparently, Miss Austen wasn’t keen on Bath herself, but she collected much ‘material’ for her novels from her times here.

In the next episode, Scotty explores Devon and Cornwall in the “West Country”. That is, they keep going the wrong way.

#Scotland the Brave and his Guardians were taking a Trafalgar Tour. (Hash #TTbBestOfBritain )

BOOKS with Scotland in them (our Scotty, that is)

Scotty is the star of a very special book called When A Brave Bear Fights Cancer: A Get Well Soon Gift by Carola Schmidt. In the book, Scotty a little bear who gets a bad sickness called cancer. He’s worried and often scared because cancer is scary.  But the doctors and nurses and other patients help him. The book is to help kids feel much more brave when they are getting treatment. It’s available in paperback and Kindle. Look for the brave little bear wearing trews on the cover.

Scotty in books by Mawson

You can also see Scotty in all the books by Mawson. One is called It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In (in that one he delivers the post) and another is She Ran Away From Love (he delivers the post again.) In Dreamy Days and Random Naps you can see him being a king and also a superb guitarist. Don’t miss that one! This is what the books look like:

Mawson’s Guardian says: You can find Mawson’s books on this Link here, and on his Writer-Bear Page on Amazon.

You have wandered into Mawson Bear’s web-den. Mawson is a Ponderer of Baffling Things (between naps) and the Writer-Bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In  and She Ran Away From Love.

‘This little story made me well up. A lovely, poignant story with delightful illustrations.’ Jackie Law, Amazon Top 500 reviewer, about It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost in.

The book brings back such nostalagic memories that it made it comforting, like a  old security blanket.’  FNM Book reviews about Bright World.