When I called Lords of the Manor to book the table, the French voice on the phone tactfully suggested that jeans and trainers would be inappropriate for the dining room. I couldn't agree more I'm so over jeans and trainers. A dress code that might have come across as incredibly square a year ago, suddenly sounded quite hip.
Lords of the Manor is the restaurant in the hotel of the same name in the village of Upper Slaughter, near Stow-on-the-Wold. It's the quintessence of Cotswold..........
PAINSWICK, England -- The main road through this picturesque village says a great deal about the timeless quality of the Cotswolds, a region of low, rolling hills in England's West Country.
A vision of tranquil English village life, the street is lined with charming, centuries-old stone houses and a half-timbered post office that dates from the Middle Ages........
But, as food preferences evolve, Britains great puddings, even the sweet variety, were being overlooked in favor of Black Forest cake and strawberry cheesecake. In 1985, to preserve this important piece of culinary heritage, Three Ways House Hotel, a historic hotel in the low hills called the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, 90 miles from London in southwest England, established the Pudding Club. The goal: to preserve the pudding from drifting into obscurity.......
What turned out to be one of our 'funnest' trip in years, unfortunately started out in a very stressful manner. But that's life. So let me tell you how it all began:
My partner Dianne Marie and I arrived at Heathrow Airport outside London, some 13 hours after leaving San Francisco. We immediately rented a car and attempted to drive to The Cotswolds. Yes, I said "attempted," because it took us forever to get there.
ED JONES is editor of The Free Lance-Star. He can be reached at 540/374-5401 or at edjones@freelancestar.com.
GLANCE AT THE stone walls inside the little old church in Sherborne, England, and you'll notice a roster of vicars who have graced the pulpit there. The list goes back 900 years.
But it was a reference of more recent vintage that caught my eye last week as I strolled around the sanctuary. A needlepoint pad for kneeling worshippers offered a simple but touching message: "God bless America. Stand beside her, and guide her. September 11, 2001."
That evening, as my wife, Peggy, and I were watching the BBC news in our rented cottage in the Cotswolds, 75 miles west of London, we heard about a survey that found that most Britons think it's time to put distance between their country and the United States in the war on terrorism.
Those sentiments surfaced as newspapers and TV reporters swarmed around the Labor Party infighting that forced Prime Minister Tony Blair, George W. Bush's most loyal and articulate ally in the post-9/11 period, to promise to step down from office within the next year. Blair, the fresh, boyish leader of the Brits a decade ago, has become stale..........
ED JONES is editor of The Free Lance-Star. He can be reached at 540/374-5401 or at edjones@freelancestar.com
I'M NOT PROUD of it, but I might as well confess. I recently purchased my very own copy of "British History for Dummies."
Now granted, there are many areas of expertise in which I would quickly qualify as a dummy. Plumbing and cooking are two that come to mind.
But being a dummy on British history hurts.
After all, I took a course on the Tudors in college. I subscribe to The Spectator, a weekly opinion journal from Britain that keeps me on top of politics across the pond.
I once had an electronic subscription to The Times of London. I still read an array of newspapers and magazines about the Church of England.
But as my wife, Peggy, and I prepare for a short trip to the Cotswolds, that rolling slice of England three hours west of London, I still feel like a dummy............
The Royal Shakespeare Company will prove that's true.
The troupe is sponsoring a yearlong festival at Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's hometown, at which all of the Bard's 37 plays plus his sonnets and long poems will be performed.
It will be the first time that all of the works will be presented in a single event.
The festival will open on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, and continue into April 2007..............
After spending the better part of last month in England, walking along the River Thames, a few random observations (mostly ecologically inspired) seem in order this week. So, with a tip of the hat to author Bill Bryson, who was encountered out there in a Cotswold field, here are some of my own "notes from a long, long river.".......
First lets deal with the boring part - me. I am the one with the hat. The more charming character in the picture is my family, Charlie. I adopted Charlie at a rescue centre over a year ago. He is now nearly four. You don't need to know how old I am.
Until 1992
I lived in what my friends call 'War Zone West'. You know it as Los
Angeles. Hence I find Broadway rather dull. Since I arrived there
have been no drive-by shootings, no gang fights, and nobody has tried
to burn down the village. Don't ask me what the English do for entertainment.
Broadway has been here for a very long time, at least a thousand years. My house is one of the newer ones in the village, being only 400 years old. If you like olde worlde, then you would be much more interested in Priors Manse which dates back to the twelfth century and is in the Doomsday Book.
The Book is a product of the French who wanted to know exactly how much they had stolen after their invasion of 1066. In other words, it is a census, the first ever for the British.
The English are not simply Americans with a funny accent. They are different. They eat salad with their fingers, drive on the proper side of the road, and have a wonderful sense of community. This sense of community may partially explain their socialism. [The current government, Labour, is socialist.] This is not all bad, even for an American. If you fall down in England, or at least in Broadway, somebody will pick you up. If you are injured, you will fall into the care of the National Health Service which is free to all. It is superb.
They are also tough. Read a book on Europe 1940. At that time everyone with more than two brain cells to rub together, including Joseph Kennedy, United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James, knew these people were licked. Only the English were dumb enough to think otherwise.
This attribute of courage and stubbornness was beautifully expressed by Sir Winston Churchill who gave the finest, as well as the shortest, commencement address in the history of Oxford University. I shall quote it in full: 'Never give up. Never, ever, give up.'
In principle I am against socialism, much preferring the American system of rough and tumble capitalism. The difference in economic systems likely explains much of the history of the twentieth century. When I was born the English owned the greatest empire the world had ever seen. [Caesar would have been green with envy.] Today it is an important nation, ranking fourth economically, but it is the United States that is the richest and most powerful country in history.
Returning to Broadway, which doesn't even have an army (California has an army.), we find a place as green, serene, and friendly as you are likely to visit in any of your travels. This is especially true on rainy days or after 4:00 when the tourists have gone home or returned to their London hotels. In later articles, should the column survive that long, I shall include some pictures. For now I'll say good-by. Charlie wants to go for a walk.
Walter Wentz
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