Syl wrote:

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The UK is beautiful, far more picturesque than all the countries I have been to.
Granted, I visit hotter countries which we are not one of, but that makes us the ;green and pleasant land' that we are known for.

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 Our countryside is beautiful.  Kent is known as the garden of England, and it is.

It's the built.up areas, not as  good,  no different to America and other places, but not scrummy at all.

Syl wrote:

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Maddog wrote:

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Syl wrote:

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The UK is beautiful, far more picturesque than all the countries I have been to.
Granted, I visit hotter countries which we are not one of, but that makes us the ;green and pleasant land' that we are known for.

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 All countries have picturesque areas. Thats sort of a matter of taste. I was looking at this as a list of accomplishments by the people of the country. 

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 I know all countries have beauty and places of interest.

Our landscape here is always green though, very few Mediterranean countries have the lushness we have. A brown panoramic view doesn't have the same beauty...imo of course.

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 But Mediterranean countries (outside of Spain) never had a global empire exporting their ideas, government and economics.  And Spains was very short lived because its government was inferior. It didn't have anything like the Magna Carta that was a guiding principle behind the idea that people had some rights. 

While many people around the world will disagree, the Brits often left places better than they found them.

Not to defend colonialism, but I'm saying your version tended to work better for you and the people you colonized. 

Syl wrote:

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Yep, we deserved the "Great" in Britain.
Times have changed now, though we are still a very pretty country. You should visit us before you die.

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 I guess "Better Than Average Britain" doesn't have the same ring.

jackb wrote:

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The great in Great Britain has nothing to do with bragging rights it's simply England Wales and Scotland share the largest of the many British islands.

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 I know. Like "greater metropolitan area"..

Just run with the other meaning for fun. It was quite the empire and made quite the mark on this planet..

These are not my words... copied from elsewhere

thought it was interesting...

How did the rivers of Britain get their names? What language are they from?

Many of them are lost in the mists of time and pre-Celtic tribal languages. It is a reasonably intelligent conjecture that a high proportion of them are words for ‘river’ or ‘water’ in those tribal languages. Imagine, if you will, an anthropologist from some far-off place pointing at the mobile wet stuff and somehow conveying the question “what do you call this?”. Just like modern Londoners refer to the Thames as “the River” despite the Lea, the West Bourne, the Brent, the Wandle and so on. Incidentally there are several British rivers with names cognate with ‘Thames’ including the Thame, various Tames, Team, Teme, Tamar, Tavy, Teifi and Teviot. One theory is that they all come from a root meaning “muddy water”.

There are many rivers called Avon, Afan or variants. These are from Celtic words for ‘river’. There are quite a few called Ouse, thought to be from a Celtic root meaning ‘water’ (and related to the Oise in France). The Ouses in Yorkshire and eastern England are notoriously badly-behaved and liable to floods and changes of course. There are a number called Stour, thought to be from a root meaning ‘violent’ and referring to a swift-flowing river.

This is what you need Madders....

It's very good, I got it at Christmas.

Vita wrote:

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This is what you need Madders....

It's very good, I got it at Christmas.

 

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 That's what I have y'all for. 

jackb wrote:

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Great drone video of Manchester!

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 Not a bad looking place. 

I think I saw Syl walking down the street..😉

the oldest verified photograph of London, taken 185 years ago, in September 1839. This is a daguerreotype photograph, taken at Trafalgar Square, looking past the equestrian statue of King Charles into Whitehall and Parliament Street beyond. The photographer was Monsieur de St Croix, who had travelled to London from Paris to promote the newfangled photographic process patented by Louis Daguerre 3 months previously. This image pushes back the photographic record of London to its very beginning and - if you look closely - you can see the ghostly blur of Londoners and the stage-coach traffic, lost to the daguerreotype's long exposure.