This edited article about Hughenden Manor originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 705 published on 19 July 1975.

Hughenden Manor

Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, bought Hughenden in 1847. The manor is really Georgian in style but was altered to its present Tudor appearance to satisfy the romantic passion for English tradition of the young Disraeli.

Hughenden has an incomparable position, standing high among the Chiltern Hills, overlooking a lovely park in which stands the church where Disraeli is buried.

With its contemporary decoration, the house is a typical example of a Victorian gentleman’s country seat and contains many relics of the statesman.

There are portraits of his friends, letters from Queen Victoria and some of the manuscripts of his novels. His study is arranged exactly as he left it at the time of his death.

The statesman’s son, Major Coningsby Disraeli, lived at Hughenden until 1936, When Mr. W. H. Abbey generously purchased the house, contents and the park for preservation. It was opened to the public in 1949, and is now run by the National Trust.

During World War II, the house became a storehouse of target maps which were used by the Allied air forces.

This edited article about protecting and conserving Britain’s heritage originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 705 published on 19 July 1975.

Londinium as the Romans built it, by Ralph Bruce

The occupant of an earth-satellite poised in space over Britain at the right altitude, would be able to see almost at a glance, if he knew what to look out for, evidence of man’s existence here during more than 5,000 years. This would be the record of his way of life, at first agricultural and then industrial, from the time when he originally established himself and laid his ‘signature’ upon the land. From Muckle Flugga at the tip of Shetland to the granite crags of Land’s End, history and prehistory would be spread out beneath his gaze. This is what we call our heritage.

His eye would be caught by the greatest prehistoric monument within our shores, Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, the masterpiece of Stone Age Man which may have taken 1,000 years to build and was completed perhaps 3,500 years ago. Its true purpose is still not known. Not far from it, he would see the Avebury Stone Circle, the largest of its kind in all Europe, and the avenue of giant stones leading to Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe. He would see, too, the hundreds of round and oval burial-mounds, especially in Wiltshire, marking the last resting-places of chieftains who died over 3,000 years ago.

All these are impressive relics of Stone Age and Bronze Age Man, the earliest inhabitants of Britain. The hills and ridges of Berkshire, Dorset, Derbyshire and elsewhere carry the relics of their successors. These are the great earth ramparts and ditches of the hill-forts established by Iron Age Man. They may be seen from the air, but you can see and explore them on foot. All are prehistoric sites. All were there when, in the last years B.C., the Romans arrived in Britain.

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This edited article about Castle Ashby originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 704 published on 12 July 1975.

The Long Gallery at Castle Ashby with its early Palladian design. Photograph by Charles Latham

Castle Ashby is a sight worth seeing. It lies in a great landscape park built by the noted landscape gardener, Lancelot Brown, better known as “Capability” Brown. He received his nickname from his favourite saying that a site had “capabilities.”

Although the park was laid out in 1765, the bulk of this quadrangular mansion is regional Jacobean and dates from approximately 1624. An unusual aspect of the building is that it presents the most complete example of a balustrade spelling out an inscription. In this case, it is the verse Nisi Dominus.

The side containing the entrance to the courtyard was built in the style of Inigo Jones, but the date and designer are unknown.

The Great Chamber with Elizabethan and Charles II features, has a ceiling typifying the transition in style from the Jacobean to the Palladian vogue of the sixteenth century.

There is a richly carved oak staircase and the State rooms, hung with expensive Brussels and other tapestries, were decorated in 1675 by the third Earl of Northampton to repair Civil War damage.

Castle Ashby is owned by the Marquess of Northampton.

This edited article about Pompeii originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 702 published on 28 June 1975.

The last days of Pompeii by Graham Coton

In Pompeii, the morning of August 24th, in the year A.D. 79, had dawned as bright and clear as it normally did at that time of the year. Peasants were now working busily among the vines and olive groves on the slopes beneath the shadow of slumbering Mount Vesuvius, which had not spewed lava from its volcanic depths for centuries. The farmers who had risen particularly early, were already wheeling their two-wheeled carts piled with fruits and vegetables towards the market. There they would find more than enough buyers from among the wealthy Romans who used the fashionable resort of Pompeii as a pleasant refuge from the sultry heat of the Roman summers. In the streets, people were discussing the forthcoming elections and laying wagers on the gladiators who were due to fight in the amphitheatre before an audience of some ten thousand people. At the bottom of the steep street that led down to the harbour, men were busily unloading a cargo of wine and oil.

As the morning progressed, the city became more busy than ever. Slaves scurried among the crowds, shopping for their mistresses and masters, and as usual, the public baths were full of wealthy men of all ages who used them as a club where they could discuss the latest tit-bits of gossip that had been brought from Rome by some of the more recent arrivals. For the children, it was a particularly happy time because they were not at school. Noisily, they ran around the rooms and courtyards of their villas, playing hide-and-seek with their friends, or else they trundled their hoops through the streets, keeping a wary eye out for the charioteers who frequently came clattering along the rough roadways. In short, that August morning was very much like any other summer morning for the carefree population of Pompeii.

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This edited article about threatened rare species originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 701 published on 21 June 1975.

Ivory-billed woodpecker

It is a sad fact that 100 species of animals and about 160 varieties of birds have been exterminated by man in recorded history. Most of these have become extinct since the time of Elizabeth I. The Great Auk and the American Passenger Pigeon have been added to this melancholy list in comparatively recent times.

Even now, there are many birds and animals which are in danger of dying out because they are being hunted to the point of extinction or because their habitats are being systematically destroyed.

Whale-hunting is still carried out by some countries, even though their numbers have become so reduced that they may never recover, even if whale-hunting was stopped now.

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker once common in the southern United States and in Cuba, is feared to be nearing extinction, because the forests of great trees where it nested, have been cut down.

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This edited article about sailing barge races originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 699 published on 7 June 1975.

A sailing barge

As his tall-masted sailing barge, the Phoenician, skimmed over the water of the Thames, Captain Alfred Horlock knew that he had another winner. He saw the wind billowing the russet sails of his vessel, smelt the salt in the breeze from the estuary, and felt the waves beneath his feet as the ship rode them like a dream.

Behind him were the other competitors in this race, their blunt bows cleaving through the river.

Captain Horlock felt triumphant. He was a skipper who knew how to use the wind and the tide to beat all his rivals in the most graceful races of all time – the sailing barge races on the Thames and Medway, first held in 1863.

Captain Horlock was one of the most successful skippers to compete in these. He won his first race in 1905, and in the years that followed built up a tally of 19 wins out of the 21 races he entered.

He was one of the four generations of Horlocks who had won the barge races, beginning with his grandfather in 1868. The vessels they used were known as spritsail barges, which are among the most remarkable sailing vessels in the world. At one time they were a familiar sight in the Thames estuary and along the east coast of England, carrying their cargoes from one coastal port to another, or up the Thames to London docks.

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This edited article about the Vasa, Sweden’s sunken warship, originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 693 published on 26 April 1975.

The sinking of the Vasa by Andrew Howat

As 3 P.M. approached on August 10, 1628, a growing number of people were hurrying along the narrow winding streets of Stockholm, their wooden clogs clattering on the cobblestones as they made for the harbour. With more and more of them arriving by the minute, the crowd waiting near the Royal Castle, which fronted the harbour, soon grew to hundreds of spectators, all of them gazing wide-eyed and admiring in one direction – at the beautiful new warship “Vasa”, which was about to set sail on her maiden voyage.

The 1400-ton “Vasa” was a real showpiece, 165 ft long, with an unusually large sterncastle 50 ft high, a superstructure covered in brightly painted carvings and sixty-four large bronze cannon which sparkled and shone in the summer sun. Soaring up from “Vasa’s” decks were three masts hung with large sails and topped by pennons emblazoned with a yellow cross on a blue background, the national colours of Sweden.

Three o’clock struck and two signal guns boomed out across the water. An enthusiastic cheer rose from the crowd when “Vasa” was towed from her berth below the Castle walls and out towards the centre of the harbour. The light breeze bulged in her sails, her pennons streamed out and the warship began to gather speed.

Suddenly, “Vasa” heeled to port, but righted herself almost immediately. Then, a few seconds later, to the horror of all who saw it, two more gusts pushed the warship over into a heavier list and water began pouring through her lower gunports. Soon, “Vasa” was swamped and a few minutes later, she sank. All the stunned crowd could see now were the tops of “Vasa’s” masts and their bedraggied pennons poking out above the water: the rest of the ship, together with the bodies of fifty drowned sailors, had settled in 100 ft of water.

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This edited article about the snow leopard originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 689 published on 29 March 1975.

Snow leopard

When darkness descends over the cold, desolate uplands of Tibet, the most beautiful of the world’s mountain dwellers leaves its home to begin its nocturnal prowl in search of prey.

This is the snow leopard, a formidable predator which haunts the heights of the mighty Himalayas, where bitter winds rage across the bleak land and where, even in summer time, severe frosts chill the night air.

Still almost unknown and unmapped, the high plateau of Tibet provides a harsh, inhospitable home for the many creatures that live there. The climate is like that of the Arctic Tundra, although the hot plains of India lie just to the south.

The rare and beautiful snow leopard, or Ounce, as it is sometimes called, goes where its food is to be found. Midsummer finds it roaming among the mountain heights, 18,000 feet above sea level. The bitter cold winds of winter then force it back to as low as 6,000 feet as it continues its search for wild sheep, ibex, musk deer and small rodents. For when these creatures make their seasonal migrations, the snow leopard follows them.

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This edited article about whales originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 688 published on 22 March 1975.

The whale family and a human swimmer

Hovering hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean are vast clouds of millions upon millions of tiny half-animal, half-plant creatures called plankton.

Although they are among the smallest of living creatures, the various species of plankton keep whales, the largest animals in the world, alive.

Plankton have been called the “grasses” of the sea. The word “plankton” comes from the Greek plagktos which means “wandering.”

These clouds of marine organisms drift and wander in countless millions through the depths of the oceans.

Seen under the microscope they look like glittering crystals of all shapes.

Their average size is less than one-hundredth of an inch across. Yet in spite of their small size they are quite complicated creatures.

Like plants, many of them contain chlorophyll and so like plants they can manufacture their own food from carbon dioxide – carbon dioxide dissolved in the sea water.

Like animals, many of them can move. They do this by beating at the water with tiny whip-like “tails.”

These “grasses of the sea” keep all the larger living things in the oceans alive, from tiny shrimp-like “krill” less than an inch long to the monster blue whales weighing many tons.

Actually most of the larger fish, and whales, don’t feed on plankton directly. They let shrimp, small crabs, various types of shell fish and other small sea animals eat them first.

The larger fish then eat the shrimps and their smaller relatives.

A large whale alone can eat as much as a ton of shrimp-like “krill” in one day. But it takes ten tons of plankton to feed a ton of krill.

The whale population of the seas alone consumes indirectly millions of tons of plankton in a week.

But whales are a very small part of the sea’s immense living population. To keep them all alive takes more plankton, weight for weight, than one million times the dry land’s world harvests of wheat!

This edited article about the Leaning Tower of Pisa originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 678 published on 11 January 1975.

Picturing the unthinkable as the leaning tower of Pisa collapses; (inset) a comparative picture of the tower then and now, and Galileo conducting his famous experiment.

How can the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in north-west Italy be prevented from crashing to the ground? Each year it leans a little more and, although no one knows for certain how soon it will be before it leans too far and collapses, it is estimated that unless something is done as soon as possible it will have fallen down by 1985.

If it does collapse it will be a great shame for the tower is regarded as one of the great architectural wonders of the world. Intended as the bell-tower for the nearby cathedral, the 184 and a half feet high building of white marble was commenced in 1174 but all work stopped some five years later because the structure was already beginning to tilt. This was due to the unstable nature of the ground on which it was built which consisted of soft sand and silt and the fact that the original foundations, less than ten feet deep, were too small to prevent the building from sinking into the ground. It was to be another 94 years before any further construction work was attempted. This time, in an effort to counteract the leaning, the builders deviated from the original axis and used varying lengths of pillars on each storey to put more weight on the side furthest from the tilt. As a result the tower is not straight but slightly curved, the section from the third storey upwards being nearer to the vertical than the lower portion.

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