SATURDAY:

We left our home at about eight in the morning and drove south to Kensington to return some library books before heading north the A1, the modern road that more or less follows the Great North Road , a coaching route formerly used by mail coaches plying between London and Edinburgh . Being a Saturday morning, and relatively early, we moved quickly. After crossing Cambridgeshire, we entered Lincolnshire , and decided to take a break at Belton House, a National Trust property near Grantham. The rain was falling steadily. So, we made a beeline for the café in the stables across the paved courtyard from the seventeenth century country house. As we were in a hurry to reach our destination we did not visit the house.

We reached southern Yorkshire much quicker than I imagined, and stopped for lunch at a modern village pub at Whitley on the A19 – by now we had abandoned the A1 for a quieter, more picturesque route. It was remarkably empty for a Saturday. When I mentioned this to the manageress, she agreed and pointed out that it was the weekend before monthly wage cheques were paid.

After lunch, we drove through Selby, failing to stop to see its fine abbey, and then anticlockwise around the York by-pass until we rejoined the B1363, a side road that led through Sutton-in-the-Forest to an even smaller road. Following this we reached Huby, and then from there it was a small distance to Easingwold in North Yorkshire . Our hosts live on an isolated farm near this small market town.

To my amazement, the weather was perfect during most of our stay in North Yorkshire : sun and blue skies, though cold (not freezing, but close to it!).

Our hosts settled us in their conservatory with hot beverages, and we were welcomed by their three friendly dogs. After pre-prandial drinks seated in comfortable chairs around the fire in the drawing room, we dined in the large kitchen, and retired to bed.

SUNDAY:

Lopa and I accompanied one of our friends to Ampleforth College , a Benedictine establishment. We attended mass in the plainly decorated, but attractive chapel designed by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, and completed jut after his death in 1960. The mass was well-attended considering that the students of the college were away on their half-term break. One or two small children enlivened the proceedings at the rear of the church where we were seated, but caused negligible interruption of the proceedings. On our return to the farm, we stopped to look at the ruins of Byland Abbey, once a Cistercian monastery. We did not enter the grounds of this protected monument, but viewed it from the perimeter fence.

We, the four adults in our party, left our children at the farm and drove through the Yorkshire dales through Thirsk to Riveaulx, famous for the impressive ruins of another Cistercian abbey. In the mid 18^th century, Thomas Duncome the Third developed a landscaped terrace high above the ruins of the abbey. This is now owned by the National Trust. His in-laws had done the same kind of thing earlier at Fountains Abbey.

We began our visit to Riveaulx here. A wooded path leads gently down the Tuscan Temple , a circular folly at one end of the grassy terrace. The steep slope of the terrace is lined with trees that obstruct the view except where gaps were deliberately left to allow the visitor to catch tantalising glimpses of the ruins far below. At the other end of the terrace there is classical temple, a building resembling the Maison Carré at Nimes in the south of France . This contains an eighteenth century dining room with a ceiling painted with mythological scenes. The basement of the building, now an exhibition space, used to contain the kitchens for this former summer dining place of the aristocracy who had come to admire the views of the abbey.

We drove down to the abbey ruins. These are maintained by English Heritage, the present reincarnation of a section of the former Ministry of Works. It is difficult to convey how impressive these ruins set against the wooded background of the terrace are, but believe me, they are definitely worth visiting! We clambered about exclaiming how wonderful everything seemed to us. Shortly before five o’clock, we dashed off towards a village where one of our host’s children works in a pub. The child who we were supposed to collect had not waited for us. So, we sat down, had a drink, and a welcome plate of cheese and biscuits (including sheets of carta de musica made that day ), before returning to the farm.

That evening, we had a ‘cook-in’, all four adults preparing different parts of the meal: pumpkin soup made from a gigantic home-grown specimen, steamed rice, and succulent lamb chops from a former resident of the farm. Apple crumble flavoured with ginger and local cheeses brought the meal to a fitting end.

MONDAY:

Our daughter and the youngest of our hosts’ children piled into the four-by-four with the four adults, and we sped through country lanes northwest towards the small town of Barnard ’s Castle in the county of Durham . Just before we arrived there, I spotted the remains of some ecclesiastical buildings in the distance. Our hosts had never noticed these before. We took a small detour to visit them, the ruins of a Premonstratensian monastery. Although not as extensive as Byland or Riveaulx, this archaeological site is as the Michelin Guides so aptly puts it ‘vaux le voyage’ or ‘mérite le détour’.

Barnard’s Castle is a small town perched picturesquely on the slopes of a hill. From the square that dominates the highest point of the town a long street leads past an old circular structure towards the valley below. Sadly, most of the eating places were either shut or unattractive, but we settled for lunch in a pub whose lease was due to expire in about two week’s time.

After lunch, we drove the small distance to the Bowes Museum . This enormous Victorian pile built in a style that brings to mind memories of the French ‘Style Empire’ looms surrealistically out of the landscape. It was built by John and Joséphine Bowes as a museum to house their amazing collection of artistic objects. The well-maintained museum contains a remarkable variety of items ranging from paintings by Canaletto and Goya to a mechanical (clockwork) silver swan constructed in the 1773 by an English craftsman. Mark Twain who saw this piece of mechanical ingenuity at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, remarked in his book “Innocents Abroad”:

‘I watched the Silver Swan, which had a living grace about his movement and a living intelligence in his eyes-watched him swimming about as comfortably and unconcernedly as it he had been born in a morass instead of a jeweller’s shop - watched him seize a silver fish from under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate motions of swallowing it...'. We arrived at the museum too late to see this marvel in action (it is demonstrated to the public at two o’clock every afternoon).

We returned towards Easingwold via Leyburn and Richmond , two small Yorkshire market towns each with its own market square. Richmond has a particularly lovely square overlooked by the keep of its castle. Before I forget, I must mention that some of the towns and villages in North Yorkshire are stone built, and others brick built, reflecting the local availability of building materials.

That evening, Lopa prepared mushroom risotto with Arborio rice and fungi porcini obtained in Leyburn. This was followed by excellent roast pork from an animal reared on the farm, accompanied by a variety of roast vegetables, also home-grown.

TUESDAY:

The weather deteriorated. We bade our wonderful hosts and their charming dogs farewell and set off past York towards the Peak District avoiding the Leeds conurbation. We drove through the mist and rain across the hills. Even in the foul weather we were having, the countryside looked wonderful. We took lunch at an isolated pub beyond Buxton near Congleton. The publican had a good sense of humour, and was amused when I asked mistakenly for half-priced cider instead of half a pint!

We ploughed on through the rain via Market Drayton towards Shrewsbury where we encountered our first traffic jam for several days. We drove through the centre of the city catching a glimpse of its abbey before stopping at Asda, a temple of commerce. From there we continued to Acton Burnell where we stopped to admire the red stone ruins of its thirteenth century castle surrounded by dripping woodland. The isolated Langley Chapel is a short distance from Acton Burnell. Surrounded by Shropshire countryside, this Anglican chapel contains 17^th century wooden furnishings. Unfortunately, it was locked when we arrived.

Eventually, we reached our hotel just south of Ludlow . We drove to Ludlow where we had a meal at the Feathers Hotel. A few months before, we had an excellent meal there, but this time the unfortunate attitude of the barman who coordinates the food ordering diminished our enjoyment.

WEDNESDAY:

A pleasant drive through beautiful countryside, and in good weather, brought us to Brecon in Wales . We visited an old family friend who lives near this town in a village in the heart of the Brecon Beacons. From there, we continued south west towards Cardiff , and then further westward until we reached the village of Llantwit Major. The object of our visit was to see a school housed in the well-restored St Donats Castle, originally built in the 13^th century by the De Haweys family.

We sped east along the M4 motorway until we reached the M5 which took us northwards towards Stroud. From there, a winding road took us through the early evening darkness to Cirencester where we spent the night after dining at ‘Le Beaujolais’, a very pleasant and reasonably priced bistro under the guidance of its French chef, Eric Lépine.

THURSDAY:

The early morning drizzle and gloom lifted as we set off towards the Cotswolds. We stopped in the quaint village of Bibury . This place is famous for Arligton Row, a row of weaver’s cottages that winds picturesquely up a hillside. The construction of these buildings may date back to as early as 1380. That morning, Japanese tourists outnumbered everyone else!

Our next destination was Great Coxwell near Farringdon in Oxfordshire. This remote village is home to the Great Coxwell Barn, one of the largest surviving 14^th century barns in Europe . We admired its timber rafters, and its massive beauty before heading towards Avebury, the village situated in the midst of an early English stone circle. After an abortive attempt to get lunch at the Red Lion Pub – we waited more than 50 minutes for our order not to arrive before abandoning the place, famished – we reached the picture postcard village of Lacock .

The abbey, although heavily restored, is worth seeing, especially the cloisters. Despite the hordes of rowdy children enjoying a Halloween event, I was pleased to have visited the abbey, home of one of the founders of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot. A barn near the abbey has been converted into a small, but well presented museum celebrating his achievements. Although his photographs that date back to the 1830s were the first of their kind, some of them would still be regarded as photographic masterpieces even today.

We ate a very late lunch at Lacock’s Red Lion pub, an establishment that was managed much better than its namesake in Avebury. Then, we drove back to London to drop our luggage before I returned the car to Heathrow Airport where I had hired it.