Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
• Near Westminster Pier is a big statue of a lady on a chariot (nicknamed “the first woman
driver”...no reins).
Statue of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni
Riding in her two-horse chariot, daughters by her side, this Celtic Xena leads her people
against Roman invaders. Julius Caesar was the first Roman general to cross the Channel,
but even he was weirded out by the island's strange inhabitants, who worshipped trees, sac-
rificed virgins, and went to war painted blue. Later, Romans subdued and civilized them,
building roads and making this spot on the Thames—“Londinium”—into a major urban
center.
But Boadicea refused to be Romanized. In
A.D.
60, after Roman soldiers raped her
daughters, she rallied her people and “liberated” London, massacring its 60,000 Roman-
ized citizens. However, the brief revolt was snuffed out, and she and her family took pois-
on to avoid surrender.
