Things have changed a bit since Edward IV’s day. Britain’s first Plantagenet king would probably not have had the end of his loo roll folded into a smart point as ours is. Nor, in what the Middle Ages euphemistically called a “garderobe”, was Edward likely to have had the benefit of a complimentary spa manicure kit (“time for nails”). And while taps by Heritage Bathrooms (founded in 1924) might usually confer an air of architectural originality, in this bathroom (founded c1330) they feel daringly modern.
自爱德华四世(Edward IV)“下榻”以来，迄今为止沃里克城堡(Warwick Castle)内部的摆设变动很小。英国金雀花王朝的首位国王(Plantagenet)或许不会把手纸两端折卷成如今我们这样的中空滚筒状，在中世纪所谓“卧房”（委婉说法）中，爱德华四世也不太可能免费获赠Spa美甲包（“修剪指甲的时间”）。修建于1024年的Heritage Bathrooms卫生间里，水龙头还颇有些建筑创意，而最初建于1330年的卫生间却有着大胆的摩登感。

This is the Rose Suite in Warwick Castle, former seat of the Earl of Warwick, defensive stronghold of William the Conqueror and, for several weeks in 1469, the place where Edward IV is thought, the castle says, to have stayed as guest (or rather, as the history books have it, “prisoner”). And tonight, it is where I am staying too. Because, from this month, Warwick Castle is offering guests the opportunity to sleep in the same rooms in the tower where Edward slept. The castle is, perhaps inevitably, promising a “royal welcome”.
这儿是沃里克城堡的玫瑰套房(Rose Suite)，曾是昔日沃里克伯爵(Earl of Warwick)的领地，也曾是征服者威廉(William the Conqueror)的防御要塞，据城堡档案记载，1459年，据说爱德华四世曾作为“客人”在此居住过几个星期（抑或按照历史著作的准确记载，爱德华四世曾作为“囚犯”在此住过）。今晚，此处也是本人的下榻之处。因为从本月起，沃里克城堡允许旅客入住昔日爱德华四世曾睡过的房间。或许这是必然结果：沃里克城堡承诺给游客以“至尊享受”。
In many ways, the passing of 700-odd years has left relatively little mark. Edward, when he was here, would have climbed the same spiral staircase as I did and slept beneath the same vaulted stone ceiling. Perhaps most pruriently, as Aaron Manning, the castle’s head of historical interpretation explains, the modern toilet is plumbed into the medieval plumbing, so Edward “would have sat in exactly the same place as guests would today”. A happy thought.
从多方面看，700多年的风风雨雨几乎未给城堡留下什么印记。爱德华羁押于此时，肯定与我一样爬同样的旋转楼梯，睡在拱顶石天花板底下同样的房间。或许正如城堡历史解说部主管曼宁(Aaron Manning)所说的，最让人想入非非的是：由于现代卫生设备已接入昔日中世纪的管道系统，因此爱德华“或许与如今入住的客人一样，坐在同样的马桶上方便”。想想甭提有多逗趣！
Royal thrones aside, there have been some more obvious changes. Arriving at the entrance gate, I am waved through the ticket barrier by a wench in medieval dress who is chatting on the phone. A Viking and a Saxon (Emma and Mark, apparently) wander past together as they go off-shift and, it must be said, somewhat historically off-track. I am advised not to miss the flaming trebuchet at 4.30pm. You wouldn’t get this at Windsor Castle.
先抛开爱德华四世不谈，如今的沃里克城堡已有了些明显变化。抵达入口大门时，一位身着中世纪裙子、正在大煲电话的乡下姑娘向我挥手示意，径直让我通过了检票口。一位维京人与另一萨克逊人（很明显就是艾玛与马克）下班后，也一起漫步通过了检票口，必须指出的是：这么做与历史事实有些出入。曼宁建议我务必不要错过下午4:30举行的火焰投石机表演。这种表演在温莎城堡(Windsor Castle)都没机会看到。
But then again, given that Windsor’s royals are still in residence, you wouldn’t get to stay in their bedroom either. Which is the real difference here. It is often said that those visiting stately homes tend, in the face of all statistical likelihood, to imagine themselves as owners rather than the kitchenmaids. In many castles, such imaginings are hampered by the fact that the nobles are still in residence. Not so here: in 1978 the Earl of Warwick sold the castle and its heating bills to the Tussauds Group (owners of the famous waxworks as well as theme parks). The closest thing that Warwick now has to a noble is, well, me.
但话又说回来，由于英王室目前仍居住于温莎城堡，所以诸位也没机会睡到其房间中，这才是本质差别。根据概率统计，参观开放豪华古宅的游客据说通常就把自己设想成是所有者，而不是厨房女佣。在许多城堡中，由于贵族仍然居住于此，这种美好想象只是黄粱梦而已。但沃里克城堡并非如此：1978年，沃里克伯爵把城堡连带所欠取暖费一并转手给了杜莎集团（Tussauds Group，诸多知名蜡像馆以及主题公园的运营商）。如今享受沃里克城堡贵族服务的恰恰就是本人。
And a very pleasant feeling it is too. I walk past groups of what Shakespeare would have called “commoners” in the courtyard as they enjoy their bread and circuses (or at least burgers and vulture shows), content in the knowledge that I needn’t join their queues because champagne and canapés are waiting for me in my suite. I also discover that this suite is reached – and this is perhaps the most delicious experience of the whole weekend – through a door marked “No Entry”.
而且这种感觉特别爽，我从院子里一队队游客（换作莎士比亚(Shakespeare)，会称呼他们为“平民”）身边经过，他们正在享用免费美食及观看娱乐表演（抑或说至少是在享用汉堡与观赏秃鹫表演），颇为得意的是自己无需和这些游客一样排队，因为香槟和开胃点心已摆放在我的豪华套间里。我还发现进入套间得经过一扇门，上面标着“禁止入内”，这也许是整个周末我最为有趣的经历。
I lounge on the bed eating canapés, drinking bubbly and playing with the television, which I discover rises – Excalibur-like – from a blanket box at the touch of a button. It’s certainly novel. Equally thrilling is the discovery that the fire escape opens on to one of the battlements.
我懒洋洋地躺在大床上，享用着开胃点心，喝着香槟酒，摆弄着电视。只要一触碰按钮，电视机就会象亚瑟王的神剑(Excalibur)一样，从毯子盒里升起来。这当然很新奇，同样兴奋不已的是本人还发现了安全出口通向城堡的城垛处。
However, although there is much to savour, I am mildly ashamed to admit that perhaps the most memorable pleasure is when lost tourists, thinking that the room is open to the public, tentatively push the door open. I wave them away imperiously, or so I like to think.
然而，尽管可供把玩的地方还有很多，但我有些不好意思说出来的是：或许最难以忘怀的乐事是迷路游客以为我入住的房间为开放性场所，于是试探性地推开房门。我则傲慢地示意他们离开，大概我愿意这么做。
Still, it does feel a little strange. I am more used to castles where the pleasures are in the Grand Tour mould: places that offer the past up amid silences and scones – and where even an audioguide can seem daringly avant garde. I am not used to places offering giant trebuchets (“the largest working siege machine IN THE WORLD!”), Castle Dungeon experiences (“terrifying”), and rising TVs. These have joys of their own, no doubt. But it’s hardly Wordsworth in front of Tintern Abbey.
尽管如此，这的确让我感觉有些不习惯。我更习惯于从前英国贵族子女遍游欧洲大陆获取乐趣的那种城堡参观模式：一边享用烤饼，一边默默聆听城堡的渊源，甚至电子导游器都显得颇为标新立异。我不喜欢这样的城堡参观模式：巨大的投石器表演（“这是全球现存最大的攻城器械！”）、体验城堡地牢（“让人毛骨悚然”），以及电视机自动升起。毫无疑问，这些项目都自有乐趣，但这压根不是华兹华斯(Wordsworth)站在丁登寺(Tintern Abbey)前油然而生的那种感受。
And that is perhaps the point. Romantic poets may have liked to sense the sublime before the crumbling walls of monuments; but then they didn’t have to pay the repair bill. Merlin Entertainments, the visitor attractions group which acquired Tussauds and now owns Warwick Castle, has spent more than £6m in the past 10 years restoring it. Next year another £1m needs to be found to repair the north wall. Warwick’s dungeon experience (entrance £9) helps. But the royal experience in the tower (admission £600) plays its part, too.
也许这就是问题的实质所在。站在纪念碑的残垣断壁前，浪漫诗人或许喜欢领悟那种庄严肃穆感；不过，诗人无需为维修费用埋单。收购杜莎集团的旅游景区运营集团默林娱乐公司(Merlin Entertainments)如今是沃里克城堡的所有者，过去10年，它已为城堡维修花费了600万英镑。明年，它需要再筹集100万英镑以维修城堡北墙。沃里克城堡的地牢体验（门票费9英镑）可以起点作用。但游客的至尊入住（费用为600英镑）同样可助一臂之力。
Still, I’m curious, so I descend from my tower rooms to the riverbank to watch the trebuchet. And I discover that it is fascinating. It’s not just the unexpected look of it when it is released (less of a ping than a lollop). It’s also the commentary, which tells me that blind men were used to walk in the hamster wheel that powered the machine (they didn’t suffer from motion sickness) and that if they fell, they’d probably break their backs. I don’t recall ever being told this by the National Trust.
尽管如此，我仍颇感好奇，于是走出城堡的房间，来到河岸观看投石表演，我觉得表演精彩纷呈：石头投出去后，并非如大家所期望的那种壮观场面（石头并非呼啸而过，而是慢腾腾飞过）；解说词同样精彩：说当初雇佣盲人脚踩仓鼠轮来驱动投石器（这些盲人不会患晕动病），他们若从转轮里掉下来，则很可能折断脊梁骨。保护英国文化遗产的慈善机构国家名胜古迹信托(National Trust)曾提醒过我，只是本人忘掉了这茬子事。
There is, to my relief, more traditional entertainment, too: those who stay in the tower get a private tour of the castle. I meet Manning in the courtyard in the late afternoon. By now, the crowd is thinning; their places on the lawn taken by flocks of crows in search of the morsels of bread the visitors have left behind.
让我宽慰的是：城堡还安排了更为传统的表演：入住的游客可以单独游览城堡。傍晚时分，我在院子里与曼宁会合。此时，游客渐渐稀少，他们刚才站立的草坪上，如今已被一大群乌鸦占据，它们正在找寻游客掉落的面包屑。
The tour is wonderful. We climb on to a forbidden battlement, its stones in places as whittled and wind-worn as Cappadocia, and the experience begins. Going past the “No Entry” signs and red ropes is the least of it. We peer at 17th-century civil war graffiti by the light of Manning’s iPhone, climb into the opening of a 14th-century secret passage and look at the dungeons by torchlight. When I admire a 16th-century suit of armour, I am invited to try on the glove. It bends easily as I move my hand.
整个行程美不胜收。我们爬上不对外开放的城垛子上，有几处石头被切得跟卡帕多西亚地区(Cappadocia)如出一辙，我们的惊险旅程由此开始。经过“禁止通行”的指示牌与牵拉的红绳线根本没啥惊险度。借助曼宁iPhone手机照出的亮光，我们仔细察看17世纪英国内战时留下的各种涂鸦作品，随后又爬进14世纪的一座秘密通道，并借助手电光，实地参观了地牢。正当我欣赏16世纪的一套盔甲时，曼宁请我试戴一副当时的手套，戴上后活动手指时，感觉收放自如。
I also learn that Warwick Castle provides a good historical precedent for ignoring historical precedent, not to mention a laisser-faire attitude to culture. One earl, having bought a portrait by Van Dyck, decided that its size didn’t fit in with the decorations in his sitting room, so chopped the head out and threw away the rest. The seventh earl, fancying himself as a movie actor, built a large cinema screen on the roof (Ingrid Bergman partied in front of it). Suddenly the flaming trebuchet (which is at least historically accurate) starts to seem less egregious.
我还了解到：对于漠视历史，沃里克城堡开了漠视历史传统的恶劣先例，更遑论它对待文化那种放任自流的态度了。曾有位伯爵大人，买下范•代克(Van Dyck)创作的一幅肖像作品后，发现画作尺寸与自己客厅的装饰物并不匹配，于是乎把画作中的头像切割出来，然后把剩余部分一扔了之。第七代伯爵则自以为是影视明星，一度在城堡顶上建了块电影屏幕（英格丽•褒曼(Ingrid Bergman)曾在屏幕前参加过伯爵举办的社交聚会）。突然之间，灯火照射的地牢（至少符合历史真实）开始变得不再象原来那样毛骨悚然。
By now, the castle is almost empty. Manning leaves and I walk back across the deserted courtyard. Even the crows have gone. I walk through a rose garden in the gloaming, its silence broken only by the cry of a peacock. Then I climb up the spiral staircase to the castle’s highest battlements. Alone, I stare down at the grounds, which are – just for tonight – mine.
此时此刻，整个城堡几乎空无一人。曼宁告辞后，我一个人穿过空寂的院落走回房间。此时甚至游客都已离开。我趁着薄暮走过玫瑰花园，只有孔雀的叫声打破其宁静。随后我又顺着旋转楼梯爬回城堡最高处的城垛，此时的我孤身一人俯看着下面，就在今晚，我独享这片静谧世界。
And suddenly, the silence, and the solitude, all starts to feel a bit too much. I go back to my room, pour a glass of wine, and switch on the exciting TV. I like to think the seventh earl would have approved.
突然，自我感觉享受够了这片宁静与孤寂，于是回到自己房间，倒了一杯葡萄酒，打开电视观看有趣的节目。我想第七代伯爵大人也会支持我的所作所为。
Catherine Nixey was a guest of Warwick Castle (warwick-castle.com). A tower suite costs £600 per night, including breakfast, concierge service, a private expert-led castle tour, two days priority access to all castle attractions and car parking
凯瑟琳•尼克塞是沃里克城堡（详情请浏览以下网站warwick-castle.com）的游客，城堡套房每晚费用为600英镑，包括了早餐、门房服务、专业人士导游的城堡私人游、两天之内优先参观城堡所有景点以及优先使用停车场。
Castles you can stay in: towering examples
英国供游客入住的古堡：
Doyden Castle, Cornwall At the mouth of Port Quin inlet on the north coast of Cornwall, the castle was built in 1830 by wealthy bon viveur Samuel Symons, who wanted somewhere to drink, gamble and feast with friends, writes Kasia Delgado. A small fortress on the edge of a Cornish cliff, Doyden has one double bedroom with a dining room, kitchen, bathroom and cellar. The sandy beaches of St Ives, Polzeath and Port Isaac are within four miles. It costs from £855 for two nights (all prices listed are lowest available for summer period until September). nationaltrustcottages.co.uk
始建于1830年的多伊登城堡(Doyden Castle)位于康沃尔(Cornwall)北部海岸Port Quin峡湾入海口，由腰缠万贯的花花公子塞缪尔•西门斯(Samuel Symons)主持兴建。西门斯希望有个与朋友寻欢作乐的地方，卡西亚•德尔加多(Kasia Delgado)在书中这样写道。多伊登城堡为修建于康沃尔悬崖边的一座小型要塞，拥有一个双人房间，此外还带有餐厅、厨房、浴室以及地下室。此处距离St Ives、Polzeath、Port Isaac等小镇的沙滩均不超过4英里。两晚起住价为855英镑（所有列出的价格均为夏季最低价，九月后重调价）。详情请浏览以下网站：nationaltrustcottages.co.uk
Barcaldine Castle, near Oban in the west of Scotland, was built in 1609 and restored in 1897. It is now a four-star B&B with five large rooms including the Caithness, at the top of the castle, which has impressive views over Loch Creran and the mountains of Glen Coe. Guests can do day trips from Oban, taking the ferry to Mull, Iona, Staffa, Kerrera and Lismore. There is a golf course nine miles away and a sea kayak centre close by. Barcaldine Castle is 90 miles from Glasgow airport. £185 for one night. historic-uk.com
巴卡尔丁城堡(Barcaldine Castle)：始建于1609年，重修于1897年，位于苏格兰西部奥本镇(Oban)附近。它如今为四星级客栈，共有5间客房，其中Caithness客房位于城堡顶部，可以饱览柯兰朗海湾(Loch Creran)以及远处Glen Coe群山的壮美景色。游客可从奥本镇出发乘坐渡船，参加Mull、Iona、Staffa、Kerrera以及 Lismore等小镇的一日游活动。距离城堡九英里的地方建有一座高尔夫球场，附近还有海上独木舟中心。巴卡尔丁城堡距离格拉斯哥机场(Glasgow airport)90英里，每晚客房费用为185英镑。详情请浏览以下网站：historic-uk.com。
Peverell’s Tower was built on the grounds of Dover Castle in Kent by Henry III in the 13th century as an extra line of defence, and at one time it was used as a prison. The tower, which sleeps two, is comfortably furnished. Guests can access the castle grounds at night when the day visitors go home, exploring the castle and secret wartime tunnels. The castle itself, sitting on the famous white cliffs, was originally built as a palace designed for royal ceremony and as a showpiece with which the king could impress important visitors to England. £530 for two nights.www.english-heritage.org.uk。
Peverell’s Tower城堡：由亨利三世(Henry III)于13世纪在多佛城堡空地上兴建而成，它是另外一道防线，曾经作为监狱使用。城堡可入住两位游客，房间设施齐全。白天游览的游客离开后，入住旅客可在晚上下到地面，游览城堡以及战时秘道。位于著名的怀特悬崖边(white cliffs)的城堡原是宫殿，为举办王室典礼以及英格兰国王向外国贵宾炫耀的样板。两晚入住费为530英镑，详情请浏览以下网站：www.english-heritage.org.uk。