|
| If you try to picture an archetypal English
village, you can't go far wrong in calling to mind the honey-stoned
cottages of the Cotswolds. Visiting some of these gems is like entering
a time warp. Standing on some village green, with its duck pond
and its mellow homes unchanged and unperturbed by the passing years,
it's easy to believe that you are a ghost transported back to a
gentle pre-war England. No-one who comes to visit this island should
miss out on such places as Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury or the strangely
named Slaughters. But don't be misled by names - they are among
the most treasured gems of England. All these villages are a comfortable
drive from Vale View. Expect to negotiate little lanes running between
green fields with grazing cattle and, on the way, don't forget your
camera to capture some of the most lovely views of the Cotswolds
that you'll ever see. The romantic notion of the English village
is truly preserved in these places. But if you'd like a more realistic
idea of what it was like to live in the heyday of these rural retreats,
you could do no better than to read Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie.
This much-read book details an English childhood in the Cotswolds.
And the beautiful Slad Valley which he describes - with its rolling
fields and lovely woodlands - is still to be seen today less than
three miles from Vale View. |
|
|
