Oh So English!

The Cotswolds are my (Bob) favourite part of England (at least they are so far - one never knows what other scenes of beauty one may find). I think they just embody all that England is to me: the incredible history with all the lovely old houses and the ancient churches, the beautiful countryside with great green meadows, rolling hills, and the little bubbling brooks winding their way through the villages lined with cheerful spring flowers. I hope some of these photos show you what I mean.




Anyway, enough of the poetry, what did we see? Well, having left Oxford behind, we were given a tour of a few of the villages in the Cotswolds. Our route took us through Stow-on-the-Wold, Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter (where we stopped for a wander) and Bourton-on-the-Water (far too touristy and commercialised for our liking) before arriving in Meysey Hampton. This little village is where Mim's parents live, with whom we were staying for the weekend. We were well fed during our stay, with delicious meals cooked by Mrs Hainsworth. Their house was built about 700 years ago and although originally a barn was converted into two little semi-detached houses with wattle-and-daub walls. It's such a lovely place although Minnie found she banged her head on the low doorways a little too frequently (for some reason Robyn had no such problems...).

Mim's sister Ruth came over for lunch after church on Sunday, then we drove over to Bibury which is my favourite of the Cotswold villages (all but the 3rd photo of those above were taken here) - so pretty. We went for a long walk in the glorious sunshine, starting with the church (it would be perfect for a wedding) and the adjacent hotel and grounds (again, perfect for a wedding...), and wandering through the fields, along the river and past the few shops. We stared in amazement at the children who, with parents happily watching on, worked on destroying the ancient dry stone wall piece by piece and threw chunks of it in the river, until Ruth strode over to have a word with the parents regarding the preciousness of this piece of English heritage. She was rudely rebuked for daring to criticise and it wasn't until Mrs Hainsworth had a word with one of the children that they eventually stopped to abuse us for disciplining their children! We took a leisurely route back to Meysey Hampton through more of the villages and spent the afternoon soaking up the sunshine on the front lawn.

Our brief visit to this picturesque part of the world came to an end as we headed off to Bath by train.