Initial planning for our next trip to England began today over a Mother's Day lunch at Pal's Cabin in West Orange. Tentatively set for late spring of 2010, this will mark our fourth trip to the land of my ancestors, the most recent being the Shakespeare marathon in early 2008. This will be shortest turn around for a trip to England which is a sign of how much Carol and I both like it there - no small statement for two people who are not the most enthusiastic travelers.
The givens for this trip are visits to the homes of my ancestors - Audley in Staffordshire, Horsley/Nympsfield in Gloucestershire and the city of Worcester. The last time we visited Gloucestershire I wasn't sure that my ancestors were from Nympsfield so this will be our first visit to the place where the Window/Winder family lived for generations before moving to Horsley and then Worcester. The other given is a return to Stratford-on-Avon perhaps for a play, but definitely for a visit to Warwick Castle which is only eight miles away - we should have visited it in 2008.
Up until now, the only other place under serious consideration was Dartmoor (pictured above right) because of its connection to the classic Sherlock Holmes' story, "The Hound of the Baskervilles.'' Now one of England's largest national parks, supposedly it is possible to find the sites that Conan Doyle used in writing his story of death and terror on the moor - "Beware the moor during the hours of darkness when the powers of evil are exalted," - you can believe we will take that seriously.
After some reflection over the past few days, we have added to the list the Lake District in northwestern England and the city of Salisbury, especially Salisbury Cathedral. The latter place gave Anthony Trollope the inspiration for his much beloved Barchestershire novels and both the Cathedral and the city are supposed to be well worth seeing. It also helps that Salisbury is on the rail line to Dartmoor. The Lake District is supposedly one of the most beautiful places in all of England with a lot of opportunities for walks over spectacular country. It is also a large area and I was trying to think of how to focus that part of the trip and realized last night that the best approach might be to focus on the great English poet, William Wordsworth.
Wordsworth lived at Dove Cottage in the village of Grasmere from 1799 to 1808 when he apparently wrote most of his greatest poetry. Apparently Grasmere is right in the center of the Lake District so a brief (1-2 day) stay in the area would allow us to learn more about Wordsworth as well as go on some long walks throughout the area. I am not sure about how my poetic partner, DT, will feel about me stepping outside of the Elizabethean era but given the openess of his mind, he will be as fond of Wordsworth as he is of Shakespeare. In any event, as they say in England, it is "early days" yet, but it is exciting to start thinking about this trip which will take a lot of planning and thought.
2 comments:
John,
What is a Window/Winder ? Is that a profession or a name that just sounds like it should be one?
of1
of1,
My mother's maiden name was Winder, her great grandfather (William) was born a Window, but changed it to Winder or had it changed during his 20 plus years in the British army. Since the family worked as handloom weavers, the name problem probably comes from that trade.
Thanks for your comment which has raised the level of comments on this blog by at least 50%
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