Monday 22nd May, 2006
11 AM – The Backs, Cambridge. Another day filming Elizabeth’s state barge on the Cam – and another day of torrential rain.
It’s our last chance to get the shots we need however so the show, as they say, must go on. Elizabeth is of course under a canopy on the barge but you have to feel for her eight rowers who have started whistling ‘Singing in the Rain’, and the art department who have to try to keep the silk hangings and embroidered seats looking suitably regal.
This is also the day the graphics people are shooting their reference ‘plates’ which they will use to take what is in fact a small part of the Backs and turn it into a vista of Elizabethan London as seen from the Thames. But whilst they can turn the Cam into the Thames, even they can’t do anything about the rain….
Justin
Dear Shekhar,
I think one good thing is happening to me by reading your Golden Age diary. I am getting to learn how to direct a movie!!!
Thank you for the free tutorials. (Ever heard of Eklavya?) 😉
Cheers!
Navin
PS: What’s the secret behind the name, “Justin”? Pls answer.
Dear Justin
What was the climatre like at that time in England? In the US, this was the start of the Little Ice Age, I think, and it was colder here (northeast US) then, than it is these days — for example, rivers that don’t freeze here in winter, would freeze solid in those times.
Was England as protected by the Gulf Stream as it is now? Did it rain more at that time, or less? Wearing mostly woolens and linen, which are heavy materials when wet (and odorous, too!), how ever did they cope?? Did royals wear pattens? I can’t imagine that royals were always protected from the mud.
Thanks for sharing this picture — we often ignore weather when we think of historical events, yet weather was a bigger factor in the past than it is even now.
love, Heather
Elizabeth’s reign was indeed in the Little Ice Age. There’s a lot of debate at the moment as to exactly when this started and ended and whether it was a global phenomenon or more loocalised in Europe. It lasted from the 14th century until the mid 19th century with various warmer and colder cyles within it and followed on from the Mediaeval Warm Period which co-incided with a peak in solar activity between 1100 and 1250.
The first very cold period in the Little Ice Age didn’t occur until after our period however – around 1650 – but winters certainly seem to have been harder than today’s.
I’m afriad I don’t know about the effect of the Gulf Stream and North Altantic Drift in the period, although I shall look into it now.
As for Royals dealing with the weather, certainly pattens were available although such high status individuals didn’t have to sorry so much about ruining their clothes as they had others, unlike many people.
our last chance..
we need however,
as they say…go on
under a canopy
on the barge
to feel for her
…to try to keep the silk hangings
which they will use to take a small part
as seen from whilst they can turn
even they can’t do anything about
…the rain