We are staying for a week in the cottage of Wickham in Biddestone, England. It is an adorable town. So many towns have cottages that are so close to the road, or tall hedges so you can’t see the yard of the home. This town is unique in that it has a small public area in the center and homes and farm’s surrounding it.
There are public walk areas just steps from our cottage. My London loves the word, “cottage” and is happy to stay in a cottage.
The public walks are incredible. The townships have public walk areas, which are labeled and go through people’s private property. However, according to the law, the land owners have to allow people to walk through their land on these public foot paths. We talked to an owner of some adorable pigmy goats, and she explained that they have to allow others to walk on their property. We all loved walking the public walks. A walk near where we are staying had goats in the field that were so friendly, then through another gate and two fields later we saw some beautiful horses.
It feels like you are trespassing, when you walk through people’s fields, even though you aren’t. We even walked though the middle of a field with three crazy horses. Secretly, I think the farmer who owned the property with a public walk was totally laughing when he placed these three young very energetic, slightly crazy horses in this fields. We joked that people only walk through this field once with these horses because of there wildness. Three of us left the field crying, slightly running and a bit scared at the aggressiveness of the horses. Eliza left the experience wanting to own horses!
Stourhead
Well I wonder if anyone has ever heard of the beautiful gardens of Stourhead? Oh they were magnificent. We walked a full lap which was around 2.5 miles, with the ending area being the Temple of Apollo. Yes you may have guessed it… this is where Jane Austen’s Darcy proposes for the first time to Elizabeth, in Pride and Prejudice (2005).
We had fun watching the clip and trying our best to act the scene out, Eliza adores the book, Pride and Prejudice and she just loved this visit. Eliza and Sicily also practiced there singing inside the dome building at the Temple of Apollo, which had beautiful acoustics.
This garden was built 1740’s by Henry Hoare ll who built his garden property to be a ‘living work of art.’ It was truly beautiful. It totals 2,650 acres.
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Bath and the Jane Austen Center
Today we journeyed about 45 minutes to the city of Bath, England. We have been so impressed with the beautiful countryside in England and this drive was the same. Green fields with adorable sheep and hedges boarding the fields. Sometimes a bit of fog, sometimes a bit of moisture in the air, not rain, just little droplets, like a mist. It is really nice.
The city of Bath got its name for the thermal water springing up and heating the water naturally from the Earth’s core. I felt a bit spoiled seeing as back home we have three of these “hot pots” within about three hours of my home. The city of Bath, once ruled by the Romans, built a bath area over these thermal springs in 43 BC.
We also enjoyed a visit to the Jane Austen Museum. Where we tried in some period clothing and learned more about Jane and her books.
Video of the area around the Roman baths:
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Cotswold Towns
We visited some adorable and beautiful English villages in the Cotswold Township. Then took a walk on the public walks and saw so many lovely cottages and had delicious fish and chips and ice cream. (We had heard English food wasn’t very good, but we all think it is very delicious!) There are also quite a few used book stores that we have enjoyed shopping in.
That evening we came home and I was able to start teaching the girls to crochet. We previously bought yarn and crochet hooks in Bath, and it was fun to start making scarfs. Also, we watched another Jane Austen movie while we worked on crocheting scarfs. (Most of us are big Jan Austen fans by now.)
Church and a Hike to Solsbury Hill
We had a wonderful time going to church in Bath and then taking a hike up Solsbury Hill. Justin loves the song ‘Solsbury Hill’ by Peter Gabriel, so this was so much fun to see what he saw when he wrote the lyrics to this song. As we hiked the hill, we listened to the song. We were rewarded with a beautiful view.
Stonehenge
I was so excited to see the Stonehenge. It did not disappoint. I loved that the parking area was about a mile away from the stones which made the Stonehenge feel like it was just set on the landscape without anything around.
We learned that the Stonehenge was built about 4500 years ago, at about 2500 bc. This is the oldest thing we have seen on our abroad experience so far. We also saw many dirt mounds which were burial sights. Video is of Stonehenge:
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Thanks for reading!
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