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01_568965 ch01.qxd 8/27/04 9:50 PM Page 3 1 The Best of England Planning a trip to England presents a bewildering array of choices. We’ve scoured the country in search of the best places and experiences; in this chapter, we share our very personal and opinionated choices. We hope they give you some ideas to help you get started. 1 The Best Travel Experiences • A Night at the Theater: The of London, its rolling hills and torch passed from Shakespeare pasturelands peppered with ivy- still burns brightly. London’s the- covered inns and honey-colored ater scene is acknowledged as the stone cottages. See chapter 12. finest in the world, with two • Punting on the Cam: This is major subsidized companies: the Cantabrigian English for gliding Royal Shakespeare Company, per- along in a flat-bottom boat with a forming at Stratford-upon-Avon long pole pushed into the River and at the Barbican in London; Cam’s shallow bed. You bypass the and the National Theatre on the weeping willows along the banks, South Bank in London. Fringe watch the strolling students along Theater offers surprisingly good the graveled walkways, and take in and often innovative productions the picture-postcard vistas of staged in venues ranging from green lawns along the water’s edge. church cellars to the upstairs See “Cambridge: Town & Gown” rooms of pubs. in chapter 14. • Pub Crawling: The pursuit of the • Touring Stately Homes: England pint takes on cultural significance has hundreds of mansions open to in England. Ornate taps fill visitors, some centuries old, and tankards and mugs in pubs that we tell you about dozens of them. serve as the social heart of every vil- The homes are often surrounded lage and town. Quaint signs for by beautiful gardens; when the such names as the Red Lion, the owners got fanciful, they added White Swan, and the Royal Oak splashing fountains and miniature dotCOPYRIGHTED the landscape and beckon you pagodasMATERIAL or temples. in, not only for the pint but also for • Shopping for Antiques: What- the conviviality—and perhaps even ever treasure you’re looking for, the entertainment or the food. you can find it somewhere in Eng- • Motoring through the Cots- land. We’re talking Steiff teddy wolds: If driving involves a deter- bears, a blunderbuss, an 1890 tin- mined trip from one place to plate toy train, an egg cup another, motoring is wandering at allegedly used by Queen Victoria, random. And there’s no better a first-edition English print from place for it than the Cotswolds, 1700, or the definitive Henry less than 161km (100 miles) west Harper grandfather clock. No one 01_568965 ch01.qxd 8/27/04 9:50 PM Page 4 4 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF ENGLAND polishes up their antiques and lake. You’ll see the Lake District’s curios quite as brightly as English scenery, with its tilled valleys lying dealers. From auction houses to in the shadow of forbidding quaint shops, from flea markets to peaks, as it was meant to be country fairs, England, particu- viewed—from the water. A great larly Victorian England, is for sale. jaunt is the round-trip from Bow- • Cruising on Lake Windermere: ness to Ambleside, at the head of Inspired by the lyric poetry of the lake, and back around to the Wordsworth, you can board a village of Lakeside, at the southern boat at Windermere or Bowness tip. See “Windermere & Bow- and sail England’s most famous ness” in chapter 17. 2 The Best of Literary England • Samuel Johnson’s House (Lon- 8 College St. in Winchester. She is don; & 020/7353-3745): The buried in Winchester Cathedral. backwater at No. 17 Gough See chapters 8 and 9. Square, situated on the north side • Stratford-upon-Avon (Warwick- of Fleet Street, was Johnson’s shire): Although the bard remains a home from 1748 to 1759. Here mysterious figure, the folks who live he worked on his Rambler essays in touristy Stratford gleefully peddle and his Dictionary, and here his his literary legacy, including Shake- beloved wife, “Tetty,” died in speare’s Birthplace, where the son of 1752. See p. 186. a glover was born on April 23, 1564. • Keats House (London; & 020/ He died in Stratford on the same 7435-2062): Most of the poet’s day, 52 years later. Anne Hathaway’s brief life was spent in London, Cottage, in the hamlet of Shottery, where he was born in 1795 in a is also popular; Shakespeare mar- livery stable run by his father. He ried Hathaway when he was only moved to Hampstead in 1817 and 18 years old. See “Stratford-upon- met his fiancée, Fanny Brawne, Avon” in chapter 13. there. In this house, he coughed • Sherwood Forest (East Mid- blood into his handkerchief. lands): You won’t find Errol Flynn “That drop of blood is my death in Technicolor green tights galli- warrant,” he said. “I must die.” vanting through a forest of mighty He left for Rome in 1820 and oaks with his band of merry men. died there a year later. See p. 191. Although most of the forest has • Jane Austen Country: The author been open grassland since the of Pride and Prejudice and Sense 14th century, it lives on in legend, and Sensibility wrote of rural literature, and lore as the most delights and a civilized society— famous woodland in the world. At set mainly in her beloved Hamp- the Sherwood Forest Visitor Cen- shire. In 1809, she moved with her tre at Edwinstowe, the world of mother to Chawton, 80km (50 Friar Tuck and Little John live on. miles) south of Bath, where she See “Nottinghamshire: Robin lived until 1817. Her house is now Hood Country” in chapter 15. a museum. Her novels Persuasion • Grasmere (The Lake District): and Northanger Abbey are associ- William Wordsworth lived here ated with the city of Bath, where with his sister, Dorothy, who com- she visited frequently in her youth mented on the “domestic slip of and lived from 1801 to 1806. mountain” behind their home, In her final year, she moved to Dove Cottage. The cottage itself is 01_568965 ch01.qxd 8/27/04 9:50 PM Page 5 THE BEST OF ANCIENT & ROMAN ENGLAND 5 now part of the Wordsworth romance. Emily wrote Wuthering Museum, displaying manuscripts Heights, Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre and memorabilia. The poet also and Villette, and even Anne wrote lived for a time at nearby Rydal two novels, The Tenant of Wildfell Mount, just north of Ambleside Hall and Agnes Grey, though nei- (one of his descendants still owns ther measures up to her sisters’ the property), where you can see work. See “Haworth: Home of the gardens landscaped by the poet. Brontës” in chapter 18. Throughout the region, you’ll • Dylan Thomas Boathouse find the landscapes that inspired (Laugharne, Wales): Sixteen kilo- this giant of English romanticism, meters (10 miles) east of Tenby in including the shores of Ullswater, Wales, Swansea-born Dylan where Wordsworth saw his famous Thomas lived and worked. Later, “host of golden daffodils.” See of course, he was to be acclaimed “Grasmere” in chapter 17. as one of the great poets of the • Haworth (West Yorkshire): Sec- 20th century, but this “untidy ond only to Stratford-upon-Avon wretch of a man” turned out his as a major literary pilgrimage site is masterpieces in a modest little the home of the Brontë Parsonage shack here. It’s one of the most Museum. Here, the famous Brontë evocative literary shrines in Britain. sisters lived and spun their web of See p. 727. 3 The Best of Legendary England • Stonehenge (near Salisbury, Wilt- Jesus came here as a child with shire): The most celebrated pre- Joseph of Arimathea. According to historic monument in Europe, another legend, King Arthur was Stonehenge is some 5,000 years buried at Glastonbury, the site of old. Despite “definitive” books on the fabled Avalon. See p. 387. the subject, its original purpose • Tintagel (Cornwall): On the remains a mystery. The romantic windswept Cornish coast, the cas- theory that Stonehenge was “con- tle of Tintagel is said to be the structed by the Druids” is non- birthplace of King Arthur. The sense; it was completed before the castle was actually built much Druids reached Britain in the 3rd later than the Arthurian legend, century B.C., but the legend per- around 1150. But who wants to sists. See p. 362. stand in the way of a good story? • Glastonbury Abbey (Somerset): No one in Cornwall, that’s for One of the great abbeys of Eng- sure. Tintagel merrily touts the land and once a center of culture King Arthur legend—in town, and learning, Glastonbury quickly you can order an Excaliburger! See fell into ruins following the Disso- “Tintagel Castle: King Arthur’s lution of the Monasteries. One Legendary Lair” in chapter 11. story about the abbey says that 4 The Best of Ancient & Roman England • Roman Painted House (Dover, heating system used by the Kent): Called Britain’s “buried Romans. It’s best known for its Pompeii,” this 1,800-year-old unique bacchic murals. See p. 278. structure has exceptionally well- • Avebury (west of Marlborough, preserved walls and an under-floor Wiltshire; east of Bath, Avon): 01_568965 ch01.qxd 8/27/04 9:50 PM Page 6 6 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF ENGLAND Although not as famous as Stone- along with provincial sculpture, henge, this is one of Europe’s lead- such as figures of Minerva and ing prehistoric monuments. Its Mercury.