England is where world-renowned institutions and symbols remain aherished and intact-from Big Ben at Westminster to Canterbury Cathedral, Eton College to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Wembley Stadium to Lord’s Cricket Ground, Stonehenge to Tower Bridge. But the load is carried with panache as this tiny entity strides into the 21 st century offering designer fashion, cutting-edge clubbing, and fine wining and dining as never before. England’s presence on the global stage remains large, one of the many legacies of an empire long gone but not quite forgotten.

May to September (summer)-or, for the free-spirited, the swinging 1960s

Climbing to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral for an alternative view of London Marvelling at the prehistoric prehistoric ruin of Stonehenge and the sheer effort involved in its creation Revelling in the sense on reaching the peak of Scafell Pike in the Lake District, England’s highest mountain Mixing Roman and Georgian history in the elegant town od Bath Eating fish and chips on a pebbly beach, and willing the sun to shine Exploring Cornwall’s coastline of cliffs and bays, dotted with picturesque harbours and villages

Read The English by Jeremy Paxman, an exploration of the English psyche by one of the country’s toughest TV interviewers Listen to the Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset, a introduction to the songs written about the capital; or anything by the Beatles Watch Senes and Sensibility, a film of a thoroughly English novel in a thoroughly English setting

Eat Sunday roast dinner (typically beef with roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, peas and gravy) followed by a hearty crumble with custard and cream Drink real ale-English is the home of proper beer

Oright?

The weather; the Royal Family; Lords, Ladies and big hats at Ascot; Cockney rhyming slang; Brit Pop; jellied eels; warm beer; page three girls; fry-ups; football

lt doesn’t actually rain that much; the English drink even more tea than you already think they do; most of the best things on offer in England are free

For visitors to England traland traditional pubs are quintessential feature, and for the English themselves the pub is one of the country’s social and cultural institutions. There are more than 50,000 pubs scattered across the country, in market towns and busy city centres, in pictureseque villages and remote rural backwaters. They range from vast and ornate Victorian drinking-palaces to simple country inns with low beams and sloping flagstoned floors smooth by the passage of time and a thousand spilt pints.