Wilton, Salisbury, and Stonehenge.

Action-Packed day today.

Wilton House
Originally uploaded by woden325.

We went first to Wilton House, which is easily the finest home we saw in the class. (map, satellite photo)
Wilton House is the home of the Earl of Pembroke, and it is still managed by the family. As a matter of fact, the Earl was in the café when some of the class were having lunch. I missed this, but apparently there was much swooning over the young, single, and filthy rich Earl.
There was also much swooning (at least by Jan and I) over the lock of hair displayed in the main entrance of the house – it belonged to Queen Elizabeth I. Wilton House was simply loaded with odd little historical items like that. One other item in the house that fascinated me was a hole in the floor. It showed remnants of the foundation of the medieval abbey which was once on the site.
I grabbed lunch with Connie and Brianne before heading out to look at the gardens. The gardens were outstanding, as usual. As at Hever Castle, it appears that local families use the grounds for a day out. There was a huge playground for the kids – one that you probably wouldn’t see in the US because of the potential for lawsuits. I took a spin through the water garden (nice, but kind of buggy) and the rose garden before hitting the main lawn.

Fountain Detail
Originally uploaded by woden325.

The view of the house from the main path was bracketed by their new Millennium Fountain, which consisted of a pair of L-shaped cascades, with the water flowing into a series of ‘goblets.’ I thought that it was a very nice, elegant addition to the garden. I headed over to the river Nadder, which flows under the Palladian Bridge. While walking up the river toward the bridge, I was accompanied by a duckling who was cruising upstream. It was all very peaceful, at least once the grounds crew finished mowing the lawn.
We then headed for Salisbury (map) and its superlative cathedral. I can’t say anything bad about this place either. Salisbury Cathedral is right up there with Durham, York Minster, Winchester and Ely on my list of favorite English cathedrals. And then there’s Norwich, Lincoln Minster, St. Paul’s, Southwark, etc., etc. What can I say? I’m a sucker for old churches.

Salisbury Cathedral
Originally uploaded by woden325.

Of course, Salisbury’s main feature is its spire, the tallest in England. Inside the crossing, they have a little octagon engraved on the floor which shows how the spire is just slightly out of plumb. Other items of note were the blue Chagall windows at the east end of the church, and the medieval clock near the west entrance. Jan and I searched high and low for the little notch in the wall on the south side of the choir. Traditionally, new choirboys have their chins rammed into the wall here. Choirgirls are exempt from this tradition; they are smacked with a bible. We found it, eventually, with the help of a vicar, who found it all very amusing.

Salisbury Fountain
Originally uploaded by woden325.

Near the west entrance was a fascinating fountain. It was cross shaped, about four feet high, and about 8 feet across, with a deep pool of water that fed streams poring out of the arms of the cross into the base. The bowl was made of copper, with a deep green patina. The most amazing thing about it was how the surface formed a perfect mirror. Bobby, Ken, and I spent ages taking pictures of the ceiling or stained glass reflected in the water.
According to a nearby sign, it was supposed to have been removed a few days before we arrived, but one of the cathedral staff said that it might be placed there permanently. I can only hope that it is, because it fit in there perfectly. It could serve as an extraordinarily fine baptismal font.
Sat for a little while with Jan just absorbing the atmosphere, comparing notes on our favorite churches. Salisbury was moving up the ranks for both of us. After a bit, I headed out to the chapter house, where they have a display with the Magna Carta. They have one of the four surviving copies, and theirs is one of the most legible. On my last trip, I saw three of them, the two at the British Library, and Salisbury’s copy. I missed the one at Lincoln on the last trip, but I intend to see it on this one.
By this time, maybe 3:30 or so, we had to hustle to get back to the coach. Apparently there’s a strict time limit on how long the bus can park, and then wait in the loading zone, and we were pushing it. We were also coming up on the time limit for Paul’s driving, and we still hadn’t hit Stonehenge. (map, satellite photo)

Stonehenge
Originally uploaded by woden325.

Paul was lobbying hard to skip Stonehenge – he was utterly underwhelmed by it. And, as a tour-bus driver, I’m sure he’s seen it hundreds of times. I’ll admit that I moved through it pretty quickly this time around. It hasn’t changed much in 4 years. Still, there is something fascinating about it, if only because of the extreme difficulty of building it. Hauling these humongous stones a couple of hundred miles, shaping them with stone tools, and then hoisting them up to make lintels, and aligning the whole thing with the solstices, the whole operation strikes me as incredibly complicated.
I must also admit that I took another 40 pictures of the thing – to match the 40 or so that I took on the last trip. I could probably piece together a pretty solid panorama between the two sets.
English Heritage disappointed me by not having any of the Stonehenge polo shirts in stock at the shop this time. I’d picked up a blue one on my last trip, and I wanted a spare, but alas, they seem to have discontinued them.
While I stood there mentally composing a pretty strongly worded letter to English Heritage, Jan appeared and started chivvying everyone toward the bus, as Paul’s driving time was about to expire. I wonder if he’d turn into a mouse, like in Cinderella? After a few rounds of counting, it turned out that we were missing one, {redacted}, and Paul gave her a bit of a scare by making like he was going to leave her. At least with Paul it was a joke. With the Vile Ted(™ Jan), it wouldn’t have been a joke!
Thence back to Feltham. (map) Ken and I decided to try and head out for either some Chinese food or to find a good pub for dinner. This proved to be difficult. There was a Chinese takeaway near the hotel, with a trademark-infringing name, but we decided to aim for a sit-down restaurant. So we walked, and we walked, and we walked. We passed a few uninspiring pubs, and a whole block of that had nothing but funeral parlors. It was like Motor City for dead guys. We saw one mildly interesting pub, but it was on the far side of the road, and we decided against it. Finally we turned around, to head back toward the hotel – and realized we had walked past a very nice Chinese restaurant. Don’t know how we missed it, but we did. It turned out to be quite good. And classy – the waitress unwrapped the chopsticks and spread out the napkins for us. Thanks to Sonoko, I can use chopsticks without flinging food all over the table. So it went pretty well, apart from Ken making fun of me for liking spicy food. I think he’s jealous.
Back to the hotel for a couple of drinks with Ken, Bobby, and Sonoko.
Tomorrow: Windsor Castle, and the end of the class trip.