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For Victorian Britons, George
Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new,

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Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them
to take to the tracks.

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I'm using a Bradshaw's guide to
understand how trains transformed
Britain,

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its landscape, its industry,
society and leisure time.

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As I crisscross the country, 150
years later,

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it helps me to discover the Britain
of today.

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My journey towards Edinburgh
chugging along the route of the

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Flying Scotsman has brought me to
County Durham,

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where I'll look at the rolling stock
of today and reflect on a Victorian

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author's view of Wonderland.

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I'll smoke out a fishy story in
Northumberland,

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before crossing the border into
Scotland to enjoy nature
conservancy.

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This trip has taken me up the
East Coast Main Line from London's

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King's Cross, through the counties
of Hertfordshire,

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Bedfordshire and on via
Cambridgeshire to the market town of
Newark.

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I visited the former port of
Stockton,

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and I'm heading to the coastal towns
of Alnmouth and Dunbar before

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finishing at Edinburgh.

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This leg starts in north-east
England, calling at Darlington,

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before moving on to the harbour town
of Alnmouth.

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I'll end across the Scottish border
in Dunbar.

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On this journey I step through the
looking glass...

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Michael, are you all right?

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..prove there's no smoke without
fire when it comes to Northumbrian
delicacies...

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Right, quite enough of that,
I think!

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Bye-bye, kippers.

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..and rock the boat over Scottish
waters.

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My thoughts on the coracle?

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Possibly the most impractical thing
I've ever set eyes on.

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My first stop will be
Newton Aycliffe,

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a new town founded in 1947 but
Bradshaw's remarks,

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"Passing Aycliffe we reach Shildon,
at which place the Stockton and

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"Darlington Company have their
locomotive works."

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In railway terms,
we are on ancient hallowed ground,

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because the first trains ran between
Stockton and Darlington in 1825.

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On the 27th September of that year,
the world's first steam train to run

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on a public railway made its maiden
journey.

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George Stephenson himself drove
Locomotion No 1 and people

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travelled miles to witness the
momentous occasion.

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Having witnessed the birth of public
railways,

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this area now has a part in their
future.

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Two centuries on, Hitachi chose to
open a state-of-the-art train
factory here.

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Plant manager, Darren Cumner, is
showing me around.

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Darren, this is absolutely
spectacular.

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Obviously, completely brand-new and
masses of exciting railway activity

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going on. When did you join the
project?

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So, I joined May 2012.

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It was a green field at that stage.

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It really was a green field, just
sort of cows in the field.

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We are here in one of the most
modern railway facilities in the
world,

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but we're also close to the origin
of steam-powered railways.

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Do you have any sense of that
railway history?

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Yes, we're close to where the
birthplace of the railways was.

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Our test track actually runs by the
side of that.

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In Victorian times, the area was a
hive of railway activity.

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In their heyday, locomotive works in
Shildon and Darlington employed

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thousands of workers building
locomotives,

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carriages and wagons for a
burgeoning market.

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The last railway wagon works closed
in 1983.

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By then, road haulage had overtaken
rail freight,

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and the industry was in decline.

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Railway technology has advanced
dramatically since the 19th century.

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These trains are shipped as shells
from Japan and are fitted out by the

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workforce in Newton Aycliffe.

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They then undergo rigorous testing,

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both on and off track before joining
the fleet.

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So what are the types of train
that you're making here?

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So, on the left-hand side here is
the 8200.

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This is for the Edinburgh to Glasgow
improvement programme,

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so it's our commuter train.

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And on the right-hand side is
Intercity Express programme

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and these are high-speed trains
which are going to run on the

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East Coast Main Line and
Great Western Main Line.

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There are presently 600 employees
and the plan is for the workforce to

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grow by another 300, mainly local
people.

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I can count the number of people who
are not from the north-east on one
hand.

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We wanted an employee that could
work as a team and we've been very,

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very fortunate that people have got
a lot of transferable skills and

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we're delighted with the workforce
we have.

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Nicky Bones is one such employee.
Nice to meet you. Good to see you.

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What is this contraption here?
This is the traverser.

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So we use this to transfer the train
from one production line to another,

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and when the car is finished, to
deliver down the track to the test
house.

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Thank you very much.

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Two doors down. OK.

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Shall I do that? Yes.

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To the left.

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I have sometimes driven a train
before but never sideways.

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Once the train has been assembled,
it will be able to carry over 600

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passengers, and travel up to 140mph.

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But before being put to use,

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it needs to pass the all-important
test drive.

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Michael Tait is at the controls.

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Very good to see you. And you're
going to drive us what kind of
distance?

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About a kilometre or so down the
test track.

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Well, an exciting moment for me to
be in this brand-new train.

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Shall we get in position and go?
Brilliant.

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Michael, we are inching our way out
of the shed,

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will we get up any speed at all?

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Yes, we'll take it around 16mph.

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And is that enough speed for you
to test what you need to?

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Yes, we can perform all our tests
heading east and west up and down

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the test track.

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We are running along
by the Network Rail track and we've

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reached a speed limit of 15mph!

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We can go for it.

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This train will undergo testing over
thousands of hours,

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before being released to the
mainline.

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I'm leaving the test tracks to
resume my journey on the public
railway.

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Next stop, Darlington.

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TANNOY: Michael Portillo has joined
us for the ride

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He's still working his way through
Bradshaw's Guide

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We're going to be on the BBC

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So I hope you're not somewhere
you shouldn't be!

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Graham Palmer is the rhyming
conductor.

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Hello! Hello, Michael.

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Nice to see you. Thank you for the
rhymes.

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You're responsible for poetry in all
your announcements, are you?

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Guilty as charged, yes!

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How long have you been doing that?
Back in December 2014,

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we were asked to deliver a season's
greeting.

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Be an angel this Christmas
and be pleasant and nice

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To your fellow passengers
and rail staff alike

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So I made up a rhyme
till the end of the year

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The passengers loved it,
they'd clap and they'd cheer

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Then after that, they asked,
we like it in rhyme

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We'd like you to do it
all of the time

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But the best thing about working
the train as I do

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Is when a customer says,
"Nice journey, thank you!"

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So do you always speak in rhyme or
do you actually speak in prose as
well?

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Well, I do speak in prose as well.

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It would be so easy to say I'm a
poet and I didn't know it.

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I say things in rhyme all the time,

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but I assure you, I do speak in
prose as well, Michael!

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And the passengers do love it?
They do, they really enjoy it.

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One of our drivers said, "I bet you
can't make a rhyme for each
station."

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I love a challenge so now I've got
at least one rhyme for each station.

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What was the most difficult station
to make a rhyme out of?

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Newton Aycliffe is difficult for a
rhyme, actually.

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Your next station's Newton Aycliffe,
that's your next call

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So please take your luggage and
children and all.

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I just throw a few things in.

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It doesn't actually need to rhyme
with the actual station.

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Well, thank you, Graham.

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You've cheered my journey up and I'm
sure you've cheered many travellers'
journeys. Thank you, Michael.

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Enjoy the rest of your journey in
our beautiful part of the world.

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TANNOY: Thank you for travelling
Northern rail,

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have a safe onward journey and join
us again.

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I need to alight at Darlington to
reach my next destination,

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Croft-on-Tees.

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Located a few miles away,
its bridge over the River Tees marks

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the boundary between North Yorkshire
and County Durham.

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"Croft-on-Tees, with an old church,"
says Bradshaw's,

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"is a fashionable place,
much frequented by invalids on
account of its mineral waters."

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Here, a young man spent his
formative years.

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His bubbling imagination produced
tales that were surreal,

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which for 150 years have entertained
and terrified children in equal

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measure. I should know, I was one of
them.

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That young man was Charles Dodgson,

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who became better known under the
pen name Lewis Carroll.

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Historian Chris Lloyd takes me
through the looking glass.

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Chris, it is a stunning rectory.

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What's the connection with Lewis
Carroll?

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Well, he moved here in 1843 when his
father became rector of Croft,

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so this became their family home.

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He was 11 years old, a shy,
stammering boy.

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Croft, at that time, was actually
quite a prosperous place,

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partly because of the railway,
because just a couple of years
earlier,

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the first section of the
East Coast Main Line had opened.

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And was the boy interested in the
railway?

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I think he was almost obsessed by
it, actually.

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You are suddenly thrust amongst it,

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this great powerful steam-snorting
technology.

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He loved it. In fact, in the garden
here,

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he had his own little toy railway
that he set up.

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It was a wheelbarrow with a big
barrow on it and a couple of trucks

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behind it and him and his brothers
and sisters used to play here.

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They had stations and refreshment
rooms and they had timetables.

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They had a timetable, did they?

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The timetable was very important in
the whole proceedings.

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In fact, Bradshaw was very, very
important in this whole thing,

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because in 1855, he wrote a
three-act mock operatic parody

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of your book, of Bradshaw.

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00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:27,080
Really? Yes. He called it,
La Guida Di Bragia.

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And the book itself actually
appeared in there as a book with

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arms and legs trying to restore law
and order to the mayhem.

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Where was this stuff coming from?
He had such a vivid imagination.

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He had a vivid imagination but he
was bringing in all the things that

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were around him as well, to make it
really realistic.

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Of course, in Bradshaw's day,
everybody would be wandering around

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looking at their old-fashioned
pocket watches going,

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"Oh, no, tyranny of time, I'm late,
I'm late, I'm late,"

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which is what the White Rabbit of
course does in Alice In Wonderland.

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St Peter's Church stands just across
from the rectory garden and

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Lewis Carroll knew it well.

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There are all sorts of strange
stories in the stonework.

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Take this, for example, a 13th
century carving, but have a look
there.

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A wonderful cat face.

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Now, Michael, have a place at the
altar and say your prayers.

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Ooh! The faces change.

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Imagine you're an 11-year-old boy
so you're much smaller and go and

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see what it's doing now.

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It's the most curious thing, as you
said.

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You've just got a grin and
not a cat at all.

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It is the Cheshire Cat.

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00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:41,880
Carroll was also inspired by a local
Saxon legend.

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It was said that the region had once
been in the grip of a fearsome

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dragon who ruthlessly burnt its
enemies.

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00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:51,760
In Alice Through The Looking Glass,

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the Jabberwocky is a story of the
dragon who does terrible things and

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needs to be slayed.

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Here it is, here is the stanza of
Anglo-Saxon poetry,

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and because it's
Through The Looking Glass,

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00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,440
the first stanza was published back
to front,

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00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:07,520
so you need a looking glass to read
it.

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00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:12,600
And in the looking glass I read,
"Twas brillig and the slithy toves,

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00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:18,040
"Did gyre and gimble in the wabe,
All mimsy were the borogoves,

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"And the mome raths outgrabe."

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Complete nonsense!
Divine nonsense!

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Outside, hidden away in the bushes,

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there is yet another fount of
inspiration for Lewis Carroll.

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00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,440
Well, well, well. Yes, it's a well,
Michael.

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A spa well, actually.

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Erm... In Lewis Carroll's day,
gullible people from London would

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come up on the mainline to the
train, to the station near his
house,

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to come and take these rather
foul-scented sulphurous waters.

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They believed that it had magical
properties, and when they drank

229
00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,440
them, they would do magical things
to their bodies.

230
00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:03,120
And that, I think, is the real nub
of Alice In Wonderland.

231
00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:05,480
Because Alice tumbles down the
rabbit hole,

232
00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,520
and there she finds a bottle with
"Drink me" on it.

233
00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:11,440
And so she drinks the water just
like they drank this water,

234
00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:14,080
and it does magical things to her
body.

235
00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:23,160
Michael, are you all right?

236
00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:26,640
Ah! I'm late!

237
00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,760
I'm late! I've got a train to catch,
I'm late! I'm late!

238
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:52,400
Any refreshments?

239
00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:53,440
Thank you, no.

240
00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:02,800
Next stop, Alnmouth.

241
00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:06,640
Bradshaw's tells me that the area
has grown up under the protection of

242
00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:08,240
the Dukes of Northumberland,

243
00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:13,960
whose noble baronial castle covers a
height over the River Aln.

244
00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:17,600
Below those lofty summits for
hundreds of years before the
invention of

245
00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:21,400
tobacco, the ordinary folk were
already smoking.

246
00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:38,920
Alnmouth is a coastal village whose
maritime traffic declined with the

247
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,560
advent of the railways. But what the
trains took away in sea trade,

248
00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:44,880
they substituted with tourism.

249
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:47,120
Located on the East Coast Main Line,

250
00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:50,680
Alnmouth became a popular
Victorian seaside destination.

251
00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:56,000
Today, tourists also come for
the magnificent Alnwick Castle.

252
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:02,080
A little further north along the
coast lies Craster,

253
00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:06,360
a village renowned for a culinary
delicacy on which I'm hooked -

254
00:17:06,360 --> 00:17:07,400
smoked kipper.

255
00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:13,720
Neil Robson is the fourth-generation
of this smoking family firm.

256
00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,640
Have you any idea, Neil, how long
people have been smoking fish?

257
00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:23,200
Oh, well, these smoke houses were
built in 1856.

258
00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:27,040
But I mean, the smoking of fish has
gone on a lot longer than that.

259
00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:34,920
Vikings smoked fish, Lindisfarne
Gospels mentioned the smoking of
fish.

260
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,960
What made people first want to smoke
fish?

261
00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:39,960
Well, originally it was preserve
them.

262
00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:43,360
They would be heavily salted and
they would have a lot more smoke on
them.

263
00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:46,240
Not really to enhance the flavour
like it is now.

264
00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:47,720
People like the smoke flavour.

265
00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:49,240
And then why in Craster?

266
00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:51,920
Craster was quite a big fishing port
at one time.

267
00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:55,800
The herring that came past this part
of the coastline were probably at

268
00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:58,160
their best. That's how we got our
reputation.

269
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,000
There was a good oil content and
they were a nice size.

270
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,960
So as the herring came innocently
around the coast, you nabbed them.

271
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:07,880
We did indeed. They'd be brought to
shore and we smoked them.

272
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:09,920
We sent them down to London by
train, actually.

273
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:13,040
My grandfather used to have to go to
the local station by about

274
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:17,600
seven o'clock in the morning to get
them down to Billingsgate for the
next day market.

275
00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:21,120
But there haven't been any herring
landed in Craster for 30, 40 years.

276
00:18:21,120 --> 00:18:22,960
So where did this fellow come from?

277
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,000
That was actually, it started off in
the North Sea.

278
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,240
It was caught by a Scottish boat.

279
00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:30,240
But it was actually landed in
Norway.

280
00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:33,160
You're a well travelled fish,
aren't you?

281
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:34,800
A well travelled fish, yeah.

282
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:37,280
You've been in the industry a while.

283
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,440
Do you remember supplying the
railways?

284
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,120
I mean, my memory is that no
self-respecting gentleman could
board the

285
00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:45,880
Flying Scotsman and not order
kippers for breakfast.

286
00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:48,360
Well, we probably didn't supply the
Flying Scotsman,

287
00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:51,840
but certainly kippers were always an
integral part of the breakfast menu

288
00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,200
in the old British railway days.

289
00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:56,320
I think they ought to bring them
back.

290
00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:00,960
Kippers remain a British favourite,

291
00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:04,280
and the company supplies leading
supermarkets across the country.

292
00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:09,280
As a continuing tradition, the
smoking of herring requires new

293
00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:11,520
generations of workers to be
trained.

294
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:13,840
And I get hauled in.

295
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,120
This is the first stage of the
process, Michael.

296
00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:18,400
We need to split the fish.

297
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:20,520
So, we need to load the wheel...

298
00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:26,400
..just by pushing the fish gently
into the grips there. Right.

299
00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:29,080
We'll miss every other one.

300
00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,840
Aha. Just because you're with your
first time on the machine.

301
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:34,480
OK, then.

302
00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:37,720
Apart from the use of machines to
split the herring,

303
00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:40,880
not much has changed in the curing
process.

304
00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:44,160
The fish is placed in a solution of
water and salt.

305
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:50,280
Another 20 kilos of fish
into the brine.

306
00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:54,040
And then just arrange them so
they're flesh down, flatten them
out.

307
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:55,320
Fleshy side down.

308
00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:58,400
That's so they're in contact with
the brine.

309
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,880
There we are! Thank you.

310
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:10,480
And hung in smoke houses where a
combination of white wood shavings

311
00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:13,840
and oak sawdust is lit to smoulder
for hours.

312
00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:17,640
Right, quite enough of that,
I think.

313
00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:21,280
Bye-bye, kippers.

314
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,120
The kippers spend up to 16 hours in
the smokehouse.

315
00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:32,840
Of course, I have a train to catch,

316
00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:35,040
but fortunately there's a batch
ready to eat.

317
00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:38,960
Handsome rack of kippers.

318
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:43,320
Smelling divine.

319
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,960
I have appreciated this is a
thoroughly manual process.

320
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:49,720
What's your tip? How long will it be
before I don't smell of kipper?

321
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:52,040
Oh, 48 hours, I would imagine.

322
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,000
A kipper in a bun with a view of
Dunstanburgh Castle,

323
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:12,480
which was built in the 14th century.

324
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,960
They were already smoking herrings
by then.

325
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:19,600
But my guess is that when all the
buildings of the 21st century are

326
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:22,880
remembered only in history books,
they'll be smoking them still.

327
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:51,880
My train tracks hug the
Northumberland coast.

328
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,880
I pursue my journey across the
Scottish border.

329
00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:58,720
My next stop will be Dunbar.

330
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:03,360
The guidebook tells me it's a
seaport town situated at the mouth

331
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:06,280
of the Firth of Forth on a gentle
eminence.

332
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:10,560
The appearance of the country in
every direction is striking and

333
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,560
picturesque. Long before my
Bradshaw's,

334
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:18,480
the mind of a young Dunbar boy had
been shaped by the place's natural

335
00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:23,360
beauty in a way that would transform
a far-off land.

336
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:42,760
Dunbar can thank its location for
some of Scotland's sunniest weather,

337
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:46,080
but it has also made it a repeated
battleground.

338
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:53,240
Its castle was once one of the most
important fortresses in the country,

339
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,520
but by the time of my Bradshaw's, it
was already in ruins.

340
00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:02,720
Here lived John Muir,

341
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:07,040
a man of vision who went on to play
a pivotal role in protecting the

342
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,560
natural wonders of
the United States.

343
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:16,480
Jo Moulin is a museum officer at
John Muir's birthplace.

344
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,040
So what impact did this beautiful,

345
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:23,880
craggy environment have on the young
Muir?

346
00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,600
It certainly gave him his passion
for wild places.

347
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:30,080
Several books of his have been
published and there was a wonderful

348
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:33,400
book called The Story Of My Boyhood
And Youth, and the first chapter

349
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:36,960
of that really sets the scene for
his childhood in Dunbar.

350
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,760
And it goes along the lines of,
"When I was a boy in Scotland,

351
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:43,440
"I was fond of everything that was
wild,

352
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,120
"and all my life I've been growing
fonder and fonder of wild places and

353
00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:48,960
"wild creatures." Beautiful.

354
00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:56,760
In 1849, John Muir's family moved to
a farm in the United States.

355
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,720
It was only a matter of time before
he would explore his new country's

356
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:02,800
vast wilderness.

357
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:06,720
He went on an incredible 1,000 mile
walk from Indiana to the

358
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,320
Gulf of Mexico, and then from there
ended up in California.

359
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:14,000
And his arrival in California saw
him in Yosemite Valley,

360
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,000
and that was really where he was
based for a lot of his life.

361
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,520
He travelled to every major
continent around the world,

362
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:24,840
but he devoted a lot of his life and
his studies to Yosemite Valley.

363
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,080
During his time in the
Yosemite Valley, Muir became

364
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,680
concerned about the effect on the
environment of felling the

365
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,440
magnificent giant redwood trees.

366
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,240
He became an ardent defender of the
forest.

367
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:41,680
What did he do with this passion?

368
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,720
He wrote. He wrote a series of
newspaper articles,

369
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:50,080
and those writings rose awareness of
the issues and resulted in a letter

370
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:52,000
from the President of the United
States,

371
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,760
from President Theodore Roosevelt,
who said,

372
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:58,480
"I'd like you to take me camping in
Yosemite on my own,

373
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:00,040
"with nobody else around us."

374
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,080
What an extraordinary thing.

375
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:05,800
President of the United States asks
a Scotsman from Dunbar to go camping

376
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:07,600
with him. What was the result of
that?

377
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:11,880
The result was a bill that was
passed in Congress that set in

378
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,320
motions the creation of the
US National Park Service.

379
00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:19,280
His legacy lives on.

380
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,600
A new generation of nature lovers is
exploring the river in coracles,

381
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,320
a traditional basket-like craft.

382
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,480
These have been made locally for the
John Muir awards.

383
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:37,960
East Lothian junior rangers Rachel
and Fraser have invited me to join
them...

384
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:43,120
..provided I can get afloat, of
course.

385
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:56,800
LAUGHTER

386
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,760
My thoughts on the coracle?

387
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,240
Possibly the most impractical thing
I've ever set eyes on.

388
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,520
Almost impossible to paddle.

389
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,520
If you tilt your head, you're likely
to capsize.

390
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:15,440
Like a fairground ride,
and therefore, lots of fun.

391
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,520
Rachel, you're a junior ranger.
What does that mean?

392
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:30,680
We help the ranger service do
different things.

393
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:35,440
So we do quite a lot of conservation
stuff to do with the plants.

394
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:41,400
So we cut back different species of
gorse at beaches to help different

395
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,960
plants regrow, and do quite a lot of
hedge clearing as well.

396
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:47,160
Ah! And do you enjoy it?

397
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:51,560
Yeah. I love going to the beaches
here, they're so nice.

398
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:55,680
Tell me honestly, do you think we're
going to survive this horrible ride?

399
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,080
Maybe. Hopefully!

400
00:26:58,080 --> 00:26:59,240
I'd say about 50-50.

401
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,960
Although the Industrial Revolution
brought pollution to the
countryside,

402
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:18,840
the railways enabled people to visit
places of natural beauty.

403
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:23,080
Whether in John Muir's native
Scotland or in the United States,

404
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,080
where he inspired the National
Parks.

405
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:31,480
Even the highly imaginative rail
enthusiast, Lewis Carroll, could not

406
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:35,480
have conceived the sleek high-speed
trains of today.

407
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:39,440
Though I think he would have shared
my disappointment that in the

408
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:43,480
restaurant cars, they are unlikely
to be serving Craster kippers.

409
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:54,440
'Next time, I'll need plenty of
brawn...'

410
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:57,800
Go! Oh!

411
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,360
It's quite heavy, isn't it?
It's very heavy.

412
00:28:00,360 --> 00:28:02,040
'..a strong stomach...'

413
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:06,280
Here we have a book made from the
skin of a murderer.

414
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:07,360
My goodness.

415
00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:09,040
'..and a musical ear.'

416
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,200
Here goes, everybody.