Monday, October 16, 2006

 

Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound......
Today is just like the first day at home after a holiday.
We have been on the go for 11 days now. First we had 4 lovely days in Wiltshire with Roger and Sue, and Simon too.
A couple of days after we came home from Wiltshire, Ashley came to us to stay for a break, though not a rest.... we were busy a lot of the time.
This morning he went back to Bangor. We all jumped in the car to take him to the station and the radio came on, playing Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkel. How very apt.
In our own home I have made a start on getting up to date with the huge pile of things that have been bought to sell during the last 2 weeks.
It is a lovely bright autumn day; fortunately there have been quite a lot of lovely days.
But the day we drove to Wiltshire was not one of them. We had chosen to take our time on the journey to enjoy some of the interesting places on the way. Sadly, in the torrential rain we were not tempted to get out of the car much to explore and so all the pictures are courtesy of websites.
The route starts along familiar roads of West Sussex of course. The first place we come to that is a bit outside our normal haunts is Petworth. It is not so very far away, but as a place to visit it is way out of our league!
A large proportion of the shops these days are antiques shops; these shops attract many foreign buyers and interior designers looking for just the right piece to create the right effect in a rich man's house. It is sad really that many basic shops have gone - where is the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker?


The photographer here seems to have found 2 peasants!
Apparently the monument was erected in grateful thanks to a benefactor who installed the first gas lighting in the small town.






The cottages within the town still retain a rustic charm. Petworth is a very attractive little place to look at, perched on a hill with quaint alleyways and old houses.






Petworth House.
We have never been inside, though it is open to the public.







Petworth is in Sussex.
We continued along the A272 westwards towards Hampshire. This road takes us through all sorts of little villages - a wondrous road, so good that a Dutch couple wrote a book about it. They described the history and peoples of places north and south of the road from its start at a crossroads in East Sussex to its end at Stockbridge, which we will reach later.
I am sure the Dutch couple would have not been out researching for their book on such a day as we were experiencing.


The largest town on the route is Winchester, the ancient capital of Wessex. Wessex is (was) an area of England with its own king and King Alfred is the most famous. The statue of Alfred dominates the eastern end of the High Street.





The cathedral is lovely - on a sunny day with blue skies overhead.
It can look quite dark and brooding under grey skies.
We have not been in the cathedral for some time. These days there is an admission charge for tourists.




Facing the Cathedral Green are old buildings. We chose The Eclipse Inn for a midday meal. That is the timbered building in the picture.
We had plenty of time to study the interior! The barman had to apologise frequently to waiting customers that the meals were taking a long time to appear.


Eventually we tucked into our meals - a peasant's hotpot for Bill and salmon fishcakes for me. The food was actually quite good.
Then we scurried off through the rain to continue our journey, quite glad to leave Winchester behind. We had not found much pleasure in the historic buildings and the High Street shops seemed to be much the same as you would find in any town.
The next place of note that we came to was Stockbridge. I like Stockbridge; one single main street of interesting houses and shops, with a little stream flowing along one side with ducks swimming. We have stopped and eaten there a few times in the past.

I looked quite longingly at the tea rooms which had once been the home of Lily Langtry, actress and mistress of Edward VII.
I recalled a nice simple meal there some years ago.
Today we didn't stop - we didn't want a soaking.
We continued westwards passing the villages known as The Wallops - Upper, Middle and Lower Wallop.
All these villages are steeped in history - but nothing seems to fascinate as much as Stonehenge.
The stones draw tourists from all parts of the world every day of the year - including the very wet ones.
This ancient Druid temple to the rising sun is a fascinating image.
Nowadays the circle of standing stones is fenced off.
We remember a stunning visit to Stonehenge on 15th August 1965. This was the first full day of our married life together and our honeymoon was, just as it might be today, a series of trips to interesting places to learn about them and photograph them. In 1965 visitors wandered amongst the stones and could touch them and maybe pick up some of the ancient vibes through their fingers.

We certainly didn't stop at Stonehenge this time, though there were people there.
We were glad to hurry along to Market Lavington, Roger and Sue's village.
We turned off from the main street, crossed the little stream at Northbrook and climbed up to the top where Locksands Farm awaited us with a nice cup of tea. Thank you Roger and Sue!