>From part one...
Day 2
The next morning we awoke to a big English breakfast and a warm sun
that quickly burned off the mist. We packed up the car and drove to
Beaulieu home of the National Motor Museum, England’s best collection of
antique cars. The cars are displayed in a modern building in the
middle of an entertainment park. There are over 250 cars at the museum,
many of them British, and some dating to the 1890s.
From Beaulieu we went to visit some friends in the New Forest. A brief
visit turned into a five-hour stay, and we were late for the next leg of
our “One Morgan Over England”. Our next stop was on the moors of
Dartmoor National Park, and there was an eerie thought of wandering the
moors at night. We found our B&B just as the night mist closed over the
rolling hills of the ancient moors. We woke to find ourselves in heart
of the wild and mist-sodden, bleak and isolated open land that provided
the strange background for Conan Doyle’s “The Hounds of the
Baskervilles”. It was a patchwork of green on green with outcrops of
granite, crossed by hedgerows and dry stonewalls, doted with grazing
sheep and cattle. The small winding country roads pass by prehistoric
villages still trapped in a different time. The gently rolling moors
captures your heart like no place else. As the local are fond of
saying, “You my leave the moors, but the moors never leave you.” All to
soon we were off to the see more of England.
Days 3 & 4
From the gruff hills of the moors we traveled to the polished garnet
walls of the city of Bath. We went up the “A” road, and through the
small towns of middle England. There in the postcard town of Brampton we
found a pub for a pint of bitters and one of the best meals of our trip.
We rolled on to the shining streets of Bath in the early afternoon.
Our B&B was a beautiful Georgian town house dating to the 18th century
just off the famous Circus, and the management arranged to have Squeaky
park in front of the door because she drew as much attention as the
building.
The Romans transformed Bath into England’s first spa resort. The
ancient Roman Bath is still the center of the city. In the 18th century
the city was rebuilt by famous architects James Wood the Elder, and his
son James Wood the Younger. It stands today, on the river Avon, as the
greatest example of Georgian period, when England did indeed rule the
world.
Judy and I spent Sunday seeing the sights, walking the streets, riding
the tour boat up and down the Avon, while Squeaky guarded the rooms.
Today, Sunday, was the only day we had rain, a warm drizzle fell all
day. But, we strolled through the Roman Bath, the old Abbey, and took
the double-decker bus tour of the city, and of course we sat on the top
deck. We found a small restaurant, in one of the tall stone town house,
manned by a chief and one waitress. It had just six tables, all done in
elegant white table clothes. The waitress was a young college girl at
her first nights work. She apologized for everything till it became a
joke between Judy and I. We left a large tip, by English standards.
After all, it’s no often you get a good meal and entertainment. Sunday
in Bath passed to fast, and that nigh we left the windows of our room
open just to hear the street sounds. For in the morning it was the
highway again.
Day 5
Today it was through the Vale of the White Horse, where the Celts
carved a giant horse in the chalk hills many centuries ago, and on to
Oxford, the home of England’s first university, founded in 1167. The
town has long been a strategic point on the route to London. Its name
describes the position for conveniently crossing the river, (a ford for
oxen). Here we came across a group of loud Americans, touring England
in one of those huge bus things with air-conditioning and reclining
seats.
Just outside of Oxford is the Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston
Churchill.
After we got settled in our room, on a small street just off the Palace
grounds, Judy took the rest of the day to stroll through the Palace and
its gardens. I enjoyed the more civil air of the streets of an English
town. For tomorrow was the big day. Tomorrow was the Morgan Motor
Company factory. Of course, I needed to be well rested for tomorrow.
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