На подъезде к Бервику на Твиде видно кусок автомобильной трассы, который проходит высоко-высоко над ущельем (как старая железная дорога в горной Шотландии) - голова кружится от одного взгляда на этот мост (есть ли на дне ущелья река? Можно ли назвать этот мост виадуком? Почему-то хочется назвать его акведуком).
Ещё ближе к Бервику стоит гуcтой туман. Овцы выходят из него плотными маленькими облаками, выдают их только яркие метки на боках. В последний год я всё чаще обращаю внимание на метки кислотных цветов, будто бы овцы собираются на рейв.
В статье про Бервик в википедии можно прочитать про то, как он воевал с Российской Империей, а потом и с СССР (шутка с долей правды).
Советские люди могут спать спокойно. There is an apocryphal story that Berwick is (or recently was) technically at war with Russia. The story tells that since Berwick had changed hands several times, it was traditionally regarded as a special, separate entity, and some proclamations referred to "England, Scotland and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed". One such was the declaration of the Crimean War against Russia in 1853, which Queen Victoria supposedly signed as "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions". When the Treaty of Paris was signed to conclude the war, "Berwick-upon-Tweed" was left out. This meant that, supposedly, one of Britain's smallest towns was officially at war with one of the world's largest powers – and the conflict extended by the lack of a peace treaty for over a century.
The BBC programme Nationwide investigated this story in the 1970s, and found that while Berwick was not mentioned in the Treaty of Paris, it was not mentioned in the declaration of war either. The question remained as to whether Berwick had ever been at war with Russia in the first place. The true situation is that since the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 had already made it clear that all references to England included Berwick, the town had no special status at either the start or end of the war. The grain of truth in this legend could be that some important documents from the 17th century did mention Berwick separately, but this became unnecessary after 1746.
According to a story by George Hawthorne in The Guardian of 28 December 1966, the London correspondent of Pravda visited the Mayor of Berwick, Councillor Robert Knox, and the two made a mutual declaration of peace. Knox said "Please tell the Russian people through your newspaper that they can sleep peacefully in their beds." Ноябрь, погода в королевстве стоит не очень. Я еду первым классом из Эдинбурга в Оксфорд, за окном море, вот уже через два с половиной месяца мои поездки в Эдинбург станут гораздо реже.