Brits at their Best

Beauty as a response to beauty

This stone viaduct was built in 1851 through the ancient market town of Knaresborough, to carry a branch of the Leeds & Thirsk Railway over the River Nidd. Image: Beautiful Britain

The four-span bridge stands 78 feet above the water, and was designed to respond to the architecture and character of the town, a goal achieved by its engineer, Thomas Grainger.

An interesting fellow, Grainger built a number of railroad bridges and tunnels, and was president of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, which was partial to the "useful" arts.

We like the idea of the useful arts - that usefulness and beauty can be combined, that what is useful can be shaped by what is lovely.

Posted by Cat at November 25, 2011 08:11 AM | Permalink |

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A good start.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

LIFE
British gardens, sports cars, celebrations, fashion.

ARTISTS
Exciting, profound, joyful, local and global: British writers, artists and musicians

FREEDOM
They brought honesty and common sense, fair play and compassion, bravery, daring, and self-discipline, and a passionate love of liberty to a 2000-year-long struggle to achieve freedom.

INGENIOUS INVENTORS, INNOVATIVE THINKERS

Brits gave us the modern world. We love it, loathe it, can't live without it.

ABOLISHING SLAVERY

They were a fellowship of men and women, slave and free who changed the world.

BRITAIN’S CONSTITUTION

Allegedly unwritten, but called "the most stupendous fabric of human invention" in the world, and extremely important to your well-being, no matter where you dwell.

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Our gratitude to ADAM HILEY of Essex for his contribution to the website.

Our happy thanks to BARRY AND VIVIENNE HOOPER of Australia, who purchased a book and made a donation to the website. They wrote, We thank you both for your wonderful website which you share with many.

Our warm thanks to STEWLAC for buying copies of the book, making a donation to the website, and sharing our hopes.

Thanks to JASON BARNES for contributing to Brits at their Best and buying a copy of the book. Hope he likes it.

In appreciation of the file on abolishing slavery, TOBY ROWE has supported Brits at their Best with a contribution.

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KATERINA EYRE BREWER, USA, made a contribution to the website in memory of her beloved father, JOHN MEREDITH EYRE. He died at the age of 43 after serving in the British Army and raising his children to love music and to cherish their English heritage.

GILL CHANT, UK, made a gift to the website in memory of her mother ‘MAC’ CHANT, who loved the arts.

SIMON JACKSON, UK, made a contribution to Brits at their Best, which he called ‘an excellent and important site’.

ANONYMOUS made a donation to Brits at their Best because ‘It lifts my spirit to visit your site’.

JOHN WRAKE, UK, made a contribution to the website in memory of T/141188039 SGT. C.R. RITTER, Workshops Section, 3 Company, Royal Army Service Corps, killed on active service in the Cameron Highlands, Perak, Malaya, on 2nd March 1950, aged 21. While trying to recover a civilian vehicle that had broken down, he was ambushed by Communist terrorists.

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Friends indeed. Many thanks,

David and Cat

Book cover

The people of Britain and the Anglosphere defied a world of cruelty and superstition to create life-changing gifts. This is your inheritance. Glorious. Hardcover, 140 pages, 125 colour illustrations.

Available at PG Wells Bookshop, Winchester, 01962 852 016.

The cost is £4.99 (plus £3 shipping) in the UK, $9 (plus $8 shipping) in the USA.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like a copy.

The authors — Dr David Abbott and Catherine Glass Abbott — are the publishers of this website.

David Abbott

DAVID ABBOTT MD, MRCP

I have practiced medicine in England, America and Canada for the last four decades. I believe in the principles of Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. I am a father, grandfather, bell ringer, environmental campaigner and marathoner.

Brits at their Best produced thousands of indispensable inventions, developed wildly popular sports, designed romantic houses and gardens, created astonishing literary masterpieces, lived with style and humour, tackled dangerous missions with daring and ingenuity, and fought with indomitable courage to establish and protect the free world.

We describe their superb achievements and extraordinary lives.

CATHERINE (CAT) GLASS

I saw tyranny firsthand in Eastern Europe. (My background is English, Irish, and Czech.) I received my degree in Classical Greek from Columbia University, New York, worked in publishing in the United States for twenty years, and helped the homeless for seven years.

We write about liberty, reason, imagination, fair play, a generous and forgiving spirit, love of God, the rule of just law, representative government, books, gardens, music, art, sports, inventions. . .the most wonderful things in the world.

“Brits at their Best. A magnificent site, particularly the Liberty Timeline. . .”
Hugh Hewitt, radio talk-show host, author, law professor and blogger

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[email protected]

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John Goodwin

BLOGS & SITES OF NOTE

Adam Smith Institute
American-British British-American Dictionary
A Walk around Britain
British Imperial Ensigns
British Museum
British Weights & Measures
Churchill Centre
Churchill Society
English Heritage
Hansard
Roger Helmer, MEP
Images of England
Monarchist
National Archives
National Maritime Museum
National Portrait Gallery
National Theatre
National Trust
Online Library of Liberty
On This Day
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Piddingworth
Roger Kuin's Live Journal
Royal Academy
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Geographical Society
Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Opera House
Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Society
Royal Society of St. George
Royal Society for the Arts
Sunlit Uplands
Tate
This England
V&A Museum