Day Four - Deep In The Cotswolds

Our day at the B & B began with a full English breakfast: one egg, two slices English bacon, one sausage, mushrooms and a grilled tomato. It is a good thing we are doing a lot of walking! Our host Mervin was preparing for retirement - this was his last week in the B & B business. His daughter was taking over and he was off to go fishing. We wished him the best of luck - both in his new life and with his fishing and we were off.

Hidcote Garden

Today we head directly for Hidcote Garden. It is considered one of the best gardens in the world and a perfect example of English gardens. Only it's creator, Lawrence Johnston, was an American! It is a gorgeous garden. He created rooms of hedges each filled with different personalities.t is quite a maze to wander through all the rooms but you really don't mind being happily lost when every room is so gorgeous!

Our cameras were snapping constantly as we wandered the many paths. We came out to a croquet lawn and decided to play a game. We read the rules and began. A docent came by to say we were holding the mallets wrong. You don't hold them like a golf club but you swing the mallet between your legs. Hmmmm.....that took a little getting used to. It was a gorgeous day to be playing croquet on one of the great estates in England. Perfect.

Coughton Court
(Pronounced like "Coat On")

Today we head for the Lake District which will take several hours. By the time we get ther it will be too late to visit anything there so we pull out our National Trust book. We choose a property on the way, Coughton Court. It is the ancestral home of the Throckmortan Family. They were a Catholic family during the time of Henry VIII who had to practice their religion in secret. Because of this the house was one of secrets as well - secret hiding places for priests and worship items. It was interesting to see how they coped with persecution. Plus it was a gorgeous manor with so many interesting things. It was fun too because the family still lives there so there were many homey touches.

The Dining Room - Just Like Home

One Of The Two Churches

We then went to visit two churches next door. Both were from the 1100s. It is amazing they are still standing after all this time. We were hoping to go into the walled garden which was redesigned by the owner's daughter recently but it was closed by the time we arrived. So we wandered the grounds a little more and headed for the car. It was quite late so I turned on my I-pad to send the B & B owner we were staying with tonight ante to expect a late arrival. We were all releived when it went through as the i-pad was on very low battery.

We then climbed into the car. We headed out on the road for Keswick, our next stop. It was a beautiful drive until it got dark. We finally arrived at our next home at 10 pm where Lyn our host greeted us. Once again we all just fell into bed. Tomorrow will be another busy day.