The largest and most populous portion of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is bounded by Wales and the Irish Sea on the west and
Scotland on the north. The English Channel, the Strait of Dover, and the North
Sea separate it from the continent of Europe. The Isle of Wight, off the
southern mainland in the English Channel, and the Scilly Islands, in the
Atlantic Ocean off the south-western tip of the mainland, are considered part of
England.
London, the capital of Great Britain, is located in the south-eastern portion of England. Fashion, fine dining,
clubbing, shopping - England's rates with the world's best.
The Thames and the Severn are the longest rivers.Behind the white chalk
cliffs of the southern coast lie the gently rolling
downs and wide plains stretching to the Chiltern Hills and the Cotswold Hills.
Along the east coast are the lowlands of Norfolk, reaching up to the Fens,
formerly marshy country that has been drained, lining The Wash, an inlet of the
North Sea.
In the east and southeast, river estuaries lead to some of England's
great commercial and industrial centres: London, on the Thames; Hull, on the
Humber; Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees, on the Tees; and Newcastle upon Tyne,
on the Tyne.
The north of England, above the Humber, is mountainous; the chief
highlands are the Cumbrian Mountains. in the northwest and the Pennines, which run
north-south in N central England. The famous Lake District, in the Cumbrians,
has England's highest points.
The centre of England, the Midlands, is a large
plain, interrupted and bordered by hills. In the Midlands are the industrial centres
of Birmingham and the Black Country. The Midlands, especially its
northern edge, was formerly a great coal-mining region. On the Lancashire plain
is the great city of Manchester, the centre of the English textile industry.
Durham and W Yorkshire are also highly industrialized, but E Yorkshire is an
area of bleak moors and wolds, and the upper reaches of Northumberland are
sparsely populated.
In the west and southwest the border with Wales and the
peninsula of Devonshire and Cornwall have a hilly, upland terrain. The main
ports in the west are Bristol and Liverpool. In southern England, the main ports are London,
Southampton, and Plymouth.
England is looking forward into the new century while trying to forget many
of the developments of the previous 100 years. That period witnessed the fall of
the empire, the loss of the trading base and the nation's inability to adjust to
a diminished role in the modern world - from colonial empire to member of the
EC. But while the Family may have taken a right Royal battering, many of the
other august institutions at the cornerstone of British life have muddled their
way through with a stiff upper lip and a strong sense of protocol.
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