Wings To Britain, 1957

[Music] London Tower calling Pan-American Clipper 64. Here are landing conditions at London Airport. Wind 230°, 10 knots, gusting to 20 knots. Visibility 20 [Music] m. Clipper 64, report your position. London Tower Clipper 64 proceeding on schedule. We are estimating your station at 0800. [Music] Over. This is how it begins. Every voyage is a voyage of discovery. Every traveler is an adventurer, an explorer going to see for himself. And this is how the modern adventurer sets out. You travel light and easy. You close your eyes and make a wish. And while you're asleep, time [Music] shrinks. Is it today yet? Or is it still yesterday? Think back. You were at home last minute packing, saying goodbye to the kids. The phone never stopped ringing. That was yesterday. And today, today you're almost there. This is how a day begins. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, in the country you're traveling to. This is how it [Music] begins. Perhaps this is what you expected. Perhaps you knew it would be like this. You find something familiar in the way the sunlight touches the green hills and suddenly it comes to [Music] life. This is how the day begins in English village. A village of honeyccoled stone quarried from the Cotswald hills. The morning's mail to be delivered. Milk thick as cream from the local dairy herd. These things are all part of it. A village is land and houses and men and the simple continuity of everyday things. [Music] A house is never called finished here until it has a garden. A garden makes you feel that you belong to a [Music] place. Look closely at the simple everyday things. When a Welshman sets out for a morning salmon fishing, he carries a boat that was designed 2,000 years ago. [Music] A man puts something together with his hands and if it serves its purpose, why not let it go on serving? When you know how to use the past, you know also how to build the [Music] future. This is how a day begins. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, in the capital of a great industrial nation built on foundations 2,000 years [Music] old. The city's roots grow back into a past that remains alive. Look around you. Look carefully at the things these men have made. To begin with, you want to meet them, yes, but look first at what they've built over the years. A building can tell you many things about a man. Stone on stone. And if the building satisfied, it [Music] stood. It became a part of their lives. It served. And slowly the past became part of the present. There was a time when stone on stone meant protection, the security of a fortress, and then a time when windows could be opened to the [Music] countryside, when a man's own roof was security enough. Look at the house he builds for himself and you look at his life. Certainly the old ways will change but the important thing is to remember. Remember how to shape something carefully and well. Remember how to shape something with your own hands. Even in the country that first gave birth to modern [Music] industry, they know how to leave a personal stamp on everything they touch. building a fishing port along the coast or a market town deep in a green valley. They leave a mark of their own character on the [Music] land. When they build a town, they build a mirror of [Music] themselves. Every town is a mirror, a reflecting glass. And the biggest, the brightest is [Music] London. Looked at from any angle, the city sends back an image of England. Sometimes an image of polished elegance, dark and shining. Sometimes an image that you recognize at once, as though you've been here before. Everything is a little strange, yet everything seems familiar. [Music] Sometimes an image of yourself. The world's largest city is a market town, too. You become a bargain hunter, prowling the fashionable shops and poking into back alleys. [Music] London is this too. London is a daajger holding fast to ceremony and tradition guarding the family heirlooms. [Music] [Music] This is really a family affair. Changing the guard at Buckingham Palace. No Londoner would feel quite right without it. Though in public, he's liable to pretend that it's something of a boar. [Music] Is that all there is to it then? pomp and circumstance and fancy dress. Or is there more? A sense perhaps of what the present owes to the past. A symbol of those things that remain constant in a world of change. [Music] This too is London letting down her dignity, relaxing for a moment. The city takes time out for lunch in the noon time [Music] sun. What shall it be? Le scalopini chicken paprikash with noodles and a glass of tokai crepe susette bird's nest soup and lobster Cantonese with fried rice or [Music] peanuts. Yes, perhaps just a bag of peanuts and a walk through the park. [Music] What do you do on a lazy sunlit afternoon when there's nothing to do in a country laced with rivers? You take a [Music] boat. Windsor Castle, a nation's history glides by on the shore. Sunlight and water set your thoughts a drift. Remember the story of the ugly duckling that became a swan. Stratford on Haven. A fragment of verse whispers in your mind. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this. [Music] Cambridge on the river cam. The university can be more than a collection of books. It can be a place of sunlight and broad spaces. It can grow like a garden in the green countryside. [Music] What do you do on a lazy sunlit afternoon when there's nothing to do? [Music] Take an hour off and loaf in the [Music] sun. Take the afternoon off and go to a cricket [Music] match. Take the day off and go to the races. [Music] Take the whole weekend and get away from it all. [Music] [Applause] Take the kids along too and give them a [Applause] treat. Take a horse. Take a train. Travel and see something new. [Music] Try the southern coast. Warm enough for tropical [Music] palms. Look for a quiet spot to be alone with nature. and uh 10,000 Englishmen will have the same [Music] idea. Whatever you decide on, never forget that weekends are an invention of the English. [Music] in a country circled by water. Take the afternoon off and go [Music] sailing. Remember that no matter where you stand on this island, you're never more than 60 miles from the [Music] sea. Born on an island the sea no further than 60 mi, if a boy means to live by it, he begins his training early. He learns to tie a proper knot firm and [Music] secure. And he learns it well. He may use it for the rest of his life. [Music] They take their living from the sea, and some of them grow old, knowing nothing but the smell of salt in the air. [Music] They carve their towns out of cliffs so steep that a man needs help to carry things from here to there. [Music] The receding tide leaves a harvest on the shore. And before evening the towns may echo with the cry of cockals and muscles alive, alive. [Music] Oh, a harvest from the sea. A harvest from the land. The island is small, but the land is rich and fertile. Here too, a boy learns early the things that he will live [Music] by. The livestock are a matter of special pride and once a year they have their day. Once a year, a blue ribbon for the best of breed. Once a year, the whole town becomes a market. Not a soul in the entire county without something to buy, something to sell. Once a year, the county [Music] fair. Go north. Go north to the lake country. Windermir, Grassmir, names that ring in the mind. Let an Englishman teach you how to explore the countryside, how to live out of [Music] doors. Take any road and follow it through the hills. Take any road and follow it to water. Try not to hurry. Try to take your time. But however you do it, go north to the lakes. Some things grow on you. Perhaps you never thought you'd take to afternoon tea. But there you [Music] are. Toward the end of the day, an Englishman begins to look around him for a place to stop, a place to relax for an hour and order a pot of tea. You read a message in the signs you see along the roadside. Try not to hurry. Try to take your time. Go north again. Go north over the moors to Scotland. Leave the high road. Travel across the hills. Follow the sound of a Highland shepherd whistling commands to his dog. [Music] Wool to be sheared. Wool to be combed and spun. Wool to be dyed and woven into argyles and cashmere, tartans and fine tweed. [Music] Machines can be tuned to spin and weave as carefully as a woman's fingers. Capital of the north, capital of a nation within a nation. Edinburghough reflects an image of every Scotsman's claim to be singular and [Music] unique. The clans gather and Scotland's pride is tested in the games of the Highlands. [Music] A nation's unity is proved in the claim of every man to his own particular traditions, singular and unique. In the course of a day, a country's moods change as often as a man's. Now calm and reflective, then bursting into sudden life. London is this too. London is a night city. [Music] A city of flashing lights. A city of rising curtains. [Music] Explore the town at night. Find the neighborhood pub and get acquainted over a glass of half and [Music] half. Dig into your pocket for a coin and see if you can beat them at their own game. [Music] Order another pint and try your hand at an old tradition, the Englishman's game of darts. [Music] Just once stay up and see the dawn growing in the sky. sky over [Music] London. Suddenly it comes to [Music] [Music] life. This is how today begins in the country you're traveling to. [Music] Every voyage is a voyage of discovery. Every traveler is an adventurer, an explorer going to see for himself. While you're asleep, time shrinks. You're almost there. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. To our left, we're approaching the English coast. We'll be landing at London Airport in 37 minutes. This is how it begins. [Music]