Travelling Austen's England - My Itinerary and Experiences, June, 1997
	This journal tracks my sixteen day journey through England. The trip was made with my friends, Rebecca Davey, Arnessa and Dee Garrett, and Amy Rider. My eternal thanks to them for their companionship, to Bernie Parkin for her asssistance in planning the trip, and to Kathleen Grant and Joan Winsor for their scanning efforts.

Part Four - Oxford and the Cotswolds

Though we hadn't expected to make it to Lacock during this trip, we found that the Badgerline buses out of Bath could get us there. Unfortunately, our last morning in Bath was a Sunday, the one day when the Lacock service didn't operate! Lacock is the National Trust-owned village which stood in for Highbury and Meryton in the Davies-Birtwistle productions of Emma and Pride and Prejudice. It is also the home town of a Mr. Fox Talbot, who invented the modern photographic printing process. The first photographs taken using the reprintable negative method was Lacock Abbey. Be advised that the Abbey and the photography museum don't open until mid-afternoon on most days. So, we hung out at Boots the Chemist's for a bit, bought some Clinique clarifying lotion and a Fathers' Day card for my dad, and went off to Oxford (on the Edinburgh intercity service - watch out, because there's lots of resrved seating on this route!).

If you like college towns, you can't do much better than Oxford. It's quaint, it's packed with historical interest, and it's a great base for exploring Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds, Stratford, Warwick, and the rest of Oxfordshire. Standing as an attraction alone, however, it can be done in less than a day.

Perhaps the best way to get an idea of what you do and don't want to see is to take one of those double-decker bus tours, which cost a few pounds, but allow you on and off priviledges for the day. Do see Magdalen (pronounced "maudlin") College, where the famous Jane Austen Scholar R.W. Chapman studied and taught. It's lovely, with a green courtyard and roses abound. Right next to it is the Thames (or Thamesis or Isis) River, crossed by Magdalen (surprise!) Bridge. Watch for folks "punting on the River Isis," which entails navigating this puddle of a tributary in a shallow boat with a big pole, standing straight up in good topheavy fashion. Across the Street from Magdalen is the Oxford Botanical Garden. Tasty, rather inexpensive restaurants are hidden in a little alley off of St. Giles. But be careful, as not all the restaurants there are cheap!

Spires and Shires and Cotswold Roaming both offer lovely tours of the nearby Cotswolds...a hilly region historically known for its "sheep hills," wool industry, and distinctive limestone construction. Today, the area is primarily home to telecommuting professionals and timeshare travellers. We hooked up with the Cotswold Roaming tours to Blenheim and Bladon and to Sudeley Castle (Donwell Abbey in Emma3), and weren't disappointed.

On our second day, we toured Blenheim Palace, a la Lizzy and the Gardiners, and the village of Bladon. Bladon was built by the Duke of Marlborough to house the working corps of the Palace. At St. Martin's Church is buried Sir Winston Churchill - a notable Marlborough - his mother Jennie Jerome Churchill, and Consuelo Vanderbilt, the ninth Duchess of Marlborough (both my countrywomen, the original Buccaneers!). Consuelo's the one who coined the joke about birthing both the "heir and the spare."

Blenheim Palace itself, accessed via the picturesque village of Woodstock, is the biggest old manor house in England. Built in the eighteenth century by the first Duke of Marlborough, the project was financed by a gift of land and money by Queen Anne, in return for the Duke's military victory at the Battle of Blindheim in Austria (1704). The approach is fabulous, as one gets a panoramic view of the house, the lake, and the magnificent bridge spanning it. The house itself is beautiful - even bright and cheerful, if one can allow a big old house to be at all delightful. Even the family portraits (the old ones, at least) are interesting. More interesting are the Blenheim Tapestries, which depict the battle itself, and the trompe de l'oeuil ceiling in the huge dining room. The long library/ballroom is also a sight to be seen, as is the rube goldberg-esque lock mechanism on the front door.

The gardens, however, are a bit boring. They've got a water garden made to look like something off of Versailles, and a very Disney little park area complete with a maze and a train ride. The ubiquitous "Big Estate" corps of sheep, though otherwise very charming, ruin even the wide expanse of front lawn with their excrement.

In the afternoon, we trained it on our own to Warwick to see Warwick Castle (again, a la Lizzy and the Gardiners). Unfortunately, the signal blocks from Leamington Spa to Stratford were all munched, and so they had to bus us to Warwick the roundabout way - through Stratford first! So, we spent twenty minutes at the station of the hometown of Shakespeare, nobly suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. We finally got to Warwick...but were left with little more than an hour to see the castle. We managed everything, however, and I, at least, left satisfied. If we thought Blenheim was Disney, we were sorely mistaken...WARWICK was nothing if not themey!

The Ghost Tower was reminiscent of the Haunted Mansion, complete with demonic "Ghost Host"-style narration that could have been uttered by Paul Frees himself! The Kingmaker exhibit - dedicated to the political machinations of Guy, the Earl of Warwick - was frighteningly real. As we were allowed to move freely - without ropes or barriers of any kind - among the lifelike figures, I felt oddly out of place. I half expected one of the dummies to jump out at me. The Neatest Part of the Castle Award goes to both Caesar's Tower, which we could climb up and around, and the Tudor Staterooms, in which we couldn't! The big tower - Guy's Tower (or, if you will, "The Big Guy's Tower"! ba-dum CHING!) - was closed, due to midaeval tile excavations ongoing.

The next day, we toured the Cotswolds and Sudeley Castle, which ate up the entire day. Aside from my killer allergies, it was a wonderful adventure. We hiked across a sheep field from Lower to Upper Slaughter (Lower Slaughter, I later learned, is occasionally home to a guy from my hometown who loans his place to all sorts of Lodi and Stockton folk at all times of year, most notably my Aunt and her best friend), learned about Cotswold limestone architecture (Jacobean in origin) and roofing techniques, and saw the model village at Bourton-on-the-Water. Testament to the leisure of the average Cotswoldian, this model village is a complete scale model of Bourton itself, down to the scale model of the scale model of the scale model.

The day ended at Sudeley Castle, which was absolutely magical. The last home of Queen Katherine Parr (and her final resting place), Sudeley was also used by the Emma3 production crew for the exteriors of Donwell Abbey. You may recall the ruins of its great hall and its lovely Queen's garden from the Strawberry scenes. The Castle is the current home of some transplanted American heiress, who first married the owner of the house and then remarried to some titled guy when the first husband died (I know what you're thinking, Janeites - Lady Denham?).

All photographs and text on this site, with the exception of writings by other authors, are the property of Kaliopi Pappas. Material may not be used without permission. Thanks!