Monthly Archives: October 2016

Out enjoying the country yet again

Following breakfast Thursday we bolted early for The West…

p1030878 p1030887 p1030888

to leave the motorway an hour and a half later, plunging into green tunnels and through Hungerford [past The Bear where Chris Jagger and Rick passed time the winter in the seventies they more or less froze at Stargroves], more green tunnels, Marlborough, tiny Fyfield and West Kennet,

p1030891

p1030905

not stopping until the West Kennet Long Barrow [3,700 – 3,600 BC], which necessitated a walk – if not the drop [I saw no drop] – away from Silbury Hill [2,400 – 2,000 BC] to the ridge.

p1030906

p1030906a

p1030907

p1030909

We ducked into the barrow for a neolithic view,

p1030913 p1030914

p1030915

p1030916

and Rick, regarding the landscape, remembered a holiday on the downs forty or so years previous involving a horse-drawn dog cart, avoidance of pavement, navigation by ordnance survey and pubs by night.

p1030920

p1030921

p1030922 p1030930

Descending to the Saab we continued to Avebury, where the stones [ca. 2,500 BC] range through and around the town more extensively, though considerably less massively, than those of Stonehenge and the pub was mobbed by a tourbus crowd.

p1030931

No worries; we were well fed in the cafe and well-informed afield…

p1030933

p1030934

p1030939

p1030940

p1030951

p1030960

p1030970

p1030974

p1030979

p1030981

Back in the town we viewed the 11th century church [dogs welcome]

p1030985

p1030993

p1030996

and a small museum

p1030999

documenting the history, prehistory and excavations in the surrounds, an important number of which were made between 1925 and 1929 by Alexander Keiller assisted by his comely wife and sister-in-law, who also re-erected and restored many of the stones to their original positions.

p1040002

p1040003

Avebury Manor, which we toured after mistakenly purchasing tickets, contained as seedy a series of “period” restorations as might be imagined [perpetrated, mysteriously, by the BBC], populated with volunteer guides straight out of Monty Python, most memorably one sporting a polyester monk’s habit in honor of some ghost or other…room unto room the decor became increasingly sparse

p1040007

p1040012

but outside the gardens were more happily cared for.

p1040019

p1040026

p1040034

Moderately enlightened, endlessly amused, we made our escape, with apples.

p1040039

p1040043

After abandoning, to the relief of my feet, a walk to Windmill Hill we motored east and south, skirting the Royal Artillery’s ‘Danger Areas’, through Honeystreet, Hilcott, North Newnton, Upavon, West Chisenbury,

p1040050

New Town, Netheravon, Alton, Hackthorn, then west through the Army town of Larkhill and, after a bit of confusion at the Rolleston Camp junction, located Shrewton and Rollestone Manor.

Our home to be for two nights…

p1040053

along with, first evening, the Great Bustard Group, in town for their monthly meeting.  My wife was skeptical but once convinced that, yes, Great Bustards exist and are in need of a Group’s protection we enjoyed a most informative conversation in the drawing room concerning these large [and most likely, given their extirpation, tasty] airborne opportunivores, formerly native to the region and still thriving from Portugal to Siberia.

p1040270

We subsequently dined happily on a rich [sans bustard] cassoulet, after which the Bustardians convened in an adjoining room…

p1040205

but later extended us an invitation to visit their aviaries at nearby Rollestone Camp… unfortunately our Tower Tour of Salisbury Cathedral conflicted so we regretfully declined.

Retiring to our rooms upstairs, Rick in the Lady Harriet and we to the Sir Nathaniel [which had a very nice shower] the night ended quietly, redolent with the smell of fresh-cut grasses.

p1040065

[Selfies were of a much higher caliber in the 18th century…]

M