London, etc. and Paris, 8: Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral and the White Cliffs of Dover. Plus “The One and Only Dog Collar Museum.”

Travel Date: Monday, April 29, 2024

Our second bus tour took us southwest from London to the English Channel at Dover, via Leeds Castle and Canterbury. Leeds Castle is only the second “castle” (as opposed to palaces) I’ve ever visited, the first being Randolph Hearst’s estate at San Simeon, which I toured when I was about twenty. Hearst didn’t have a moat. Leeds has a moat.

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“Listed in the Domesday book of 1086, Leeds Castle has been a Norman stronghold, a royal residence for six of England’s medieval queens, a palace belonging to Henry VIII and a country retreat for influential 20th-century figures”(on-site signage).

Leeds is a comfortable size for a castle. With the support of a staff of dozens, I think I could quite happily live there. In fact, this castle was in use less than a hundred years ago, when its final owner, Lady Olive Baillie, entertained famous people from all over the world. “Alongside a close circle of friends, Lady Baillie [who purchased the castle in 1923] enjoyed Leeds Castle as her luxurious country house and a weekend retreat before setting up a trust to care for it after her death in 1974” (on-site signage). Thanks to the decor from Lady Baillie’s era (along with some piped in ragtime music), this medieval palace has a Roaring Twenties feel to it.

One of the appealing features of Leeds Castle is the decision by the curation team to embroider some of the historical information onto pillows and to stencil it onto walls.

After touring the castle, I wandered past contented waterbirds up to the stable-courtyard area (which now features accommodation (people can stay at the castle overnight), some shops, and food vendors), and checked out what is reportedly the world’s only Dog Collar Museum. (You’re welcome.)

Canterbury

Our next stop was Canterbury Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, an important pilgrimage destination, the location of the tombs of many royals and saints, and the site of the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170.

Canterbury Cathedral features Gothic and Romanesque architecture that dates from CE 597, when it was founded by St. Augustine. It has been modified several times over the centuries.

Thomas Becket, who was Archbishop of Canterbury when he died and Lord Chancellor before that, had a falling out with King Henry II over their differing views on the the powers of the Church vs. the Crown, and was murdered in the Cathedral by supporters of the King in 1170. (It seemed appropriate to purchase a copy of Murder in the Cathedral, the play by T.S. Eliott [1935], in the gift shop. So I did). Becket was canonized by Pope Alexander III and is considered a saint by both Roman Catholics and Anglicans. But neither his death nor his sainthood spared him from ongoing conflict with British royalty. Henry VIII (who had his own ideas on the role of the Church in England and how much control over it the Pope should have, particularly when it came to annulments of the marriages of kings) destroyed Becket’s shrine in 1538. It was recently digitally reconstructed using computer generated imaging.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (written between 1387 and 1400) imagines stories told as a way to pass the time by 24 pilgrims on their way from London to the Cathedral. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” mentioned in the post about our trip to Bath, is one of these.

The small glimpses of the City of Canterbury we caught en route to the Cathedral gave us the impression of a charming, friendly city. We particularly enjoyed the square outside the Cathedral, where we had a very satisfying meal of fish and chips.

Dover and the White Cliffs

Our bus tour finally took us to Dover for a look at the famous white cliffs. As it turned out we got a better view of them two days later when we took a bus and ferry to France, but we enjoyed the opportunity to wander along the (very stony) beach and to breathe the sea air before we returned to London.