Llyn Padarn - a beautiful lake in Wales
Llyn Padarn is a magnificent glacially formed lake in North Wales. It sits at the heart of Snowdonia’s most spectacular scenery.
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The magical glow worm
They look a bit like an elongated woodlouse, but, at night, in the summer, the magic happens: Britain's glow worms emit an eerie green glow from grass tips and bushes as the females announce their presence. Lampyris noctiluca is the glow-worm species most often seen in the UK.
Portmeirion - a Mediterranean fantasy in Wales
On the coast of North Wales, a bizarre Mediterranean concoction can be found - a tiny village of pastel coloured Italianate houses and sub-tropical gardens beside a river estuary. This is Portmeirion, the creation of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who purchased the estate in 1925 as a “neglected wilderness” and then spent most of his life designing and building this fantasy world.
Doré’s engravings: the archetypal look of Victorian London
Illustrator Gustave Doré shares significant responsibility with writer Charles Dickens for shaping the collective memory of the murky squalor of Victorian London. His engraving, 'Over London by Rail', shown above, provides a visual equivalent of the Dickens novels that take us into the workhouses, the slums, the dark alleys and the opium dens.
The Landmark Trust - saving the smaller historic buildings of Britain
Since 1965, the Landmark Trust has been saving historic buildings that are at risk and giving them a new and secure future - usually as quirky holiday lets.
Gregor MacGregor - the fraudster who invented a country
General "Sir" Gregor MacGregor, Prince of the Principality of Poyais, arrived in London in 1820, after many years adventuring and soldiering in South America, to invite his fellow Britons to invest in the wonderful and fertile new country of Poyais.
Six things to delight and entertain you every day.