OXFORDXFXFORD ENGLISHNGLISH COUNTRYSIDEOUNTRYNTRYSIDE Featuring Blenheim Palace Guest Speaker LORD CHARLES SPENCER-CHURCHILL September 11 to 19, 2015
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OXFORDXFXFORD ENGLISHNGLISH COUNTRYSIDEOUNTRYNTRYSIDE Featuring Blenheim Palace Guest Speaker LORD CHARLES SPENCER-CHURCHILL September 11 to 19, 2015 PROOF Dear Alumni and Friends: For many, the unspoilt nature of England, Shakespeare’s “blessed plot,” lies in the ways of town and country life practiced for centuries in Albion’s idyllic university towns and pastoral villages and picturesque countrysides. Experience the time-honored quest for knowledge and the tradition-rich passage as played out in the hallowed classrooms, dining halls and quadrangles of Oxford University. Learn more about how the legacy of days gone by transcends time and forms the roots of contemporary country life as you chinwag with village residents. Some of the many high points of this wonderful journey include: • Meeting Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill, cousin to Sir Winston Churchill, as you call on their family’s stunning Blenheim Palace • Savoring the experience of traveling in a small group to the university town of Oxford and through the Cotswold region • Taking the opportunity to step into the cottage where Jane Austen penned Emma • Exploring the age-old traditions of Oxford and becoming more familiar with the lives of great authors and icons • Admiring the picture-perfect scenery of the Cotswold landscape • Hearing about contemporary life from the local ladies and gents during an exclusive TOWN AND COUNTRY LIFE FORUM® • Enjoying your farewell dinner in one of Oxford’s traditional formal dining halls This comprehensive, one-of-a-kind, limited, small group travel program is the best way to experience the charm and beauty of English town and country life. It is an exceptional value including comfortable accommodations, most excursions, daily breakfast, specially arranged meals and travel at the perfect pace. We encourage you to join our fellow alumni and friends on this wonderful adventure through the British countryside. Sincerely, M.MJh John Ashton AhPROOF Executive Director Alumni Association Cover: Stroll through Oxford, the “city of dreaming spires” and see the impressive architecture of this Stroll past quaint row houses in the tranquil world-famous university town. Cotswold village of Burford. ◆ OXFORD ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE Experience fi rsthand storied destinations and steadfast traditions that have shaped the English character for centuries in Oxford, the medieval town that serves as a beacon of academia, and in the quintessentially English villages of the Cotswolds, where bucolic country life unfolds amongst charming villages, lush rolling vales and sylvan woodlands. Learn about the rhythms of daily life and the generations-old customs and ceremonies of the hallowed universities in England’s towns and chat with the ladies, blokes, nobles and gentry in the grand estates of the countryside. Enjoy Fortis est Veritas— “The truth is strong”— an enriching and intimate small group travel experience like no other, proclaims the Coat of Arms including accommodations, specially arranged meals and excursions— of the city of Oxford. an excellent value. This exclusive program is one of the popular TOWN & COUNTRY LIFE® series that immerses you in a comprehensive and intimate travel experience at just the right pace. CULTURAL ENRICHMENTS are specially arranged and only available on this custom-designed itinerary: ◆ Enjoy an authentic experience in historic British university towns and quaint, traditional Cotswold villages. ◆ Immerse yourself in a carefully planned, balanced itinerary of included, guided historical and cultural excursions and time on your own to partake in local daily rituals while sipping afternoon tea, watching punting boats glide along the River Thames or having a Pimm’s cup in a local pub. ◆ Meet Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill’s cousin and the brother of the 11th Duke of Marlborough, who will host your specially arranged behind-the-scenes visit to Blenheim Palace, with a private lunch in the stately Marlborough Room. ◆ Visit the market town of Bampton, fi lming site for Downton Abbey airing on PBS’s MASTERPIECE. ◆ Experience the venerable tradition of Formal Hall dining during the exclusive and private Farewell Dinner in one of Oxford University’s grand college dining halls. ◆ Hear it from the Experts! A local guest lecturer will discuss the glories, trials and expectations of student life at Oxford University. Experienced, accredited local guides will accompany you throughout the program and share their expertise of historical, cultural and contemporary England. ◆ Engage locals during the TOWN & COUNTRY LIFE FORUM®, where residents share their stories and discuss contemporary life in the Cotswolds. ◆ Choose to visit Jane Austen’s England and the cherished locales that infl uenced the writing of one of England’s most beloved authors (optional excursion). PROOF The long twilight glow of a perfect English summer evening sweeps over Chipping Campden, a serene, quintessential Cotswold village with a deep-rooted history in the wool trade. ITINERARY UNESCO World R Heritage Site i ENGLAND Day ve r E Air Routing R v ◆ AND ◆ iv e CAMBRIDGE COLLEGES CHAPELS er nl AMBRIDGE W od C EAST ANGLIA PRE-PROGRAM OPTION in e dr ush Blenheim Palace BURFORD 1 Depart the U.S. BLADON MINSTER OXFORD 2 LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM/MINSTER LOVELL LOVELL MARLOW Check into the OLD SWAN & MINSTER MILL. BAMPTON CIRENCESTER LONDON 3 COTSWOLD VILLAGES s River Thame ◆ Excursion to Stow-on-the-Wold, WINDSOR Chipping Campden, Broadway and Burford. UNITED CHAWTON WINCHESTER CULTURAL ENRICHMENT: KINGDOM l ne ◆ Learn about the prosperous wool trade han sh C and the wealth generated during the Engli medieval era. 4 COTSWOLD VILLAGES ◆ Excursion to Bibury and Cirencester. Minster Lovell, United Kingdom CULTURAL ENRICHMENTS: One of the prettiest of the Oxfordshire ◆ Visit to Bampton, the village fi lm villages, Minster Lovell was built on location for Downton Abbey. the banks of the bucolic, meandering ◆ ® TOWN & COUNTRY LIFE FORUM . River Windrush, essential to the wool trade 5 BLENHEIM PALACE /BLADON/OXFORD that fl ourished in the medieval Cotswolds. ◆ Privately guided tour of Blenheim Palace. Thatched-roof stone cottages line its quiet CULTURAL ENRICHMENTS: ◆ rural lane. A short distance outside the Exclusive welcome by Lord Charles th Spencer-Churchill. village, the 15 -century Minster Lovell ◆ Visit to Sir Winston Churchill’s grave Hall is steeped in legend. The surrounding in Bladon. lands once belonged to the Lovell ◆ Private luncheon in Blenheim Palace. family, and Francis Lovell fought in the 6 OXFORD Wars of the Roses with Richard III at the ◆ Walking tour of Oxford’s Colleges. battle of Botsworth. CULTURAL ENRICHMENTS: ◆ Visits to Trinity College and the CULTURAL ENRICHMENT: During the Ashmolean Museum. ® exclusive TOWN & COUNTRY LIFE FORUM , ◆ Private lecture describing student life at Oxford. local residents will discuss contemporary life in the Cotswolds. 7 OXFORD ◆ Day at leisure in Oxford. CULTURAL ENRICHMENT OPTION: Cotswold and Oxfordshire Villages ◆ Tour of Jane Austen’s England. One of the Cotswolds best known villages, 8 OXFORD Stow-on-the-Wold is a delightful market ◆ Guided, walking tour of historic Oxford. town set along Fosse Way, the fi rst great CULTURAL ENRICHMENT: Roman road in Britain. It was designed ◆ Traditional Formal Hall Farewell Dinner around its market square during the in a historic college dining hall. height of the English wool industry, where 9 OXFORD/LONDON/U.S. as Daniel Dafoe told it, up to 20,000 Return to the U.S. sheep a day were funneled to market along ◆ WINDSOR CASTLE ◆ BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ◆ narrow-walled avenues, called tunes. RIVER THAMESPROOF POST-PROGRAM OPTION Romantic gardens and classic stone houses are part of many English traditions that live on in the Cotswold and Oxfordshire villages, a bastion of beauty, history and culture. the decision I took on both occasions.” Built in the 18th century by another national hero, Sir John Churchill, the fi rst Duke of Marlborough, with funds donated by a grateful Queen Anne after his victory at the Battle of Blenheim, this stunning Baroque masterpiece today is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Britain’s most treasured stately homes. The estate’s 2200-acre parkland and gardens were designed by the legendary English l landscape architect “Capability” Brown. ne han sh C Engli CULTURAL ENRICHMENT: By special arrangement, meet your host, Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill, who will give our group a private and personal introduction to his family home before an exclusive luncheon in the Marlborough Room. Your Farewell Dinner will be held in one of Oxford’s oldest and most beautiful dining halls. Oxford Nestled inside the scenic Vale of Evesham, Affectionately named the “city of medieval Chipping Campden was built dreaming spires” by adoring poets, on the “white gold” wealth of the Oxford is home to Britain’s most wool merchants, who left behind the venerated university which counts soaring 15th-century Gothic tower of the Sir Thomas More, Percy Bysshe Shelley Church of St. James and wool-tycoon and Margaret Thatcher among manors, including the 14th-century its illustrious alumni. Steeped in Grevel House. Here villagers carry on eight centuries of history and erudition, along High Street, which still retains its old Oxford continues to nurture great English character. scholars while blending its revered Simply beautiful, Broadway was fi rst traditions with cutting-edge research settled by the Romans and is often referred and instruction provided by many of to as the “Jewel of the Cotswolds.” the world’s brightest minds. Here, the The home of William Morris, leader of the exclusive customs of a Formal Hall English Arts and Crafts Movement whose dinner require proper attire, or college devotees settled throughout the Cotswolds, gowns, and are still honored with a this village was once a major stage coach three-course meal and waiter service. stop brimming with inns and public houses Magnifi cent cobblestone squares, medieval and today beckons travelers with its alleyways and Renaissance quadrangles fi ll splendor and tranquility. the grounds of the oldest university in the Scenes from the acclaimed international English-speaking world.