CHAPTER TWO
     

Fitz cherished traditions. Nothing known to mankind was superior to the comfortable order of monarchy, aristocracy, merchant, and peasant. But now, looking out of the train window, he saw a threat to the British way of life greater than any the country had faced for a hundred years. Covering the once-green hillsides, like a gray-black leaf blight on a rhododendron bush, were the terraced houses of the coal miners. In those grimy hovels there was talk of republicanism, atheism, and revolt. It was only a century or so since the French nobility had been driven in carts to the guillotine, and the same would happen here if some of those muscular black-faced miners had their way.

Fitz would gladly have given up his earnings from coal, he told himself, if Britain could go back to a simpler era. The royal family was a strong bulwark against insurrection. But Fitz felt nervous about the visit, as well as proud. So much could go wrong. With royalty, an oversight might be seen as a sign of carelessness, and therefore disrespectful. Every detail of the weekend would be reported, by the visitors' servants, to other servants and thence to those servants' employers, so that every woman in London society would quickly know if the king were given a hard pillow, a bad potato, or the wrong brand of champagne.

Fitz's Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was waiting at Aberowen railway station. With Bea at his side he was driven a mile to Ty Gwyn, his country house. A light but persistent drizzle was falling, as it so often did in Wales. "Ty Gwyn" was Welsh for White House, but the name had become ironic. Like everything else in this part of the world, the building was covered with a layer of coal dust, and its once-white stone blocks were now a dark gray color that smeared the skirts of ladies who carelessly brushed against its walls.

Nevertheless it was a magnificent building, and it filled Fitz with pride as the car purred up the drive. The largest private house in Wales, Ty Gwyn had two hundred rooms. Once when he was a boy he and his sister, Maud, had counted the windows and found 523. It had been built by his grandfather, and there was a pleasing order to the three-story design. The ground-floor windows were tall, letting plenty of light into the grand reception rooms. Upstairs were dozens of guest rooms, and in the attic countless small servants' bedrooms, revealed by long rows of dormer windows in the steep roofs.

blight /blaɪt/ n.（叶子）枯萎病

rhododendron /ˌrəʊ.dəˈden.drən/ n.杜鹃花

hovel /ˈhɒv.əl/ n.杂货小屋，家畜小屋

atheism /ˈeɪ.θi.ɪ.zəm/ n. 无神论

guillotine /ˈɡɪl.ə.tiːn/ n.断头台

bulwark /ˈbʊl.wək/ n.保障 壁垒

insurrection /ˌɪn.sərˈek.ʃən/ n.叛乱

drizzle /ˈdrɪz.əl/ n.细雨

smear /smɪə/ v.弄脏

purr /pɜː/ n. 低沉的颤动声

attic /ˈæt.ɪk/ n.阁楼

dormer /ˈdɔː.mə/ n. 屋顶采光窗

      在南约克郡，有着英国最大的私人宅邸Wentworth Woodhouse。这是一座比白金汉宫还大的宅邸，共有300多间房屋。这幢宅邸从最早的家族几易其手到如今，无人接手。除了总价高达800万英镑以外，媒体估算还需要添加4000万镑的修理维护费。目前，这幢建筑由Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust维护。

图片来源网络

04

往期经典回顾

     

领读人：船长

每天千万人次熟悉的城市公益声音名片之上海地铁全网各线英语播报；

英国剑桥大学英语教师资格证（CELTA）持有人；

受训于英语伦敦专业正音机构；

英语正音专家；

国际品牌及会议英语宣传片配音；

国家教育部英语专业八级；

每日坚持亲自点评学员发音作业，迄今累计上万条，陪伴众多学员提高完善英语发音。