For no better reason than I rather like this picture, please allow me to show you the island of Portland in Dorset, England, at low tide as the sun sets on a late winter’s afternoon. We look out from below the defensive castle – the ‘Nothe’ (or ‘Nose’ in today’s English) built by King Henry VIII in the 1500s as defense against the Spanish Armada – towards the eastern breakwater of secluded Portland Harbour, one of the largest man made harbours in the world. The Spanish Armada passed nearby in 1588 and a great battle was fought off Portland Bill with captured galleons being towed across the bay to Weymouth. Happily on this evening the waters and Portland is far more tranquil.
