Nathaniel Parker Willis

Sadhguru

In 1785 Morgan David Morgan agreed to rent this cottage from the Plas Taliaris estate for about £9 a year.

The family were self-sufficient, keeping a pig and growing vegetables, so they could have food available all year – even if money was scarce.

The walls of their cottage were mad of ‘clom’ – a mixture of clay, stone and straw. Friends and family often helped with building work. The thick walls helped keep the house warm in winter and cool in summer.

The chimney is made from woven branches of hazel just like a basket, and its surface is covered with daub – a mixture of clay and dung.*

*information from a signboard next to the house and pigsty

Henry David Thoreau

George Herbert

On the way down to breakfast, I noticed an empty bottle of alcohol that I had seen a couple of days ago on top of a table, and that had been tucked under the table the following day, was still there.

Once again, it was a self-service breakfast. The bacon had been under the heat lamp for too long and it had dried out and become inedible.

After our failed attempt at visiting Arundells the previous day we considered visiting on our way home. But that was not to be, because it is closed on Wednesdays. Instead, we decided to visit Coughton Court where we knew that the family had recently taken over day to day management of the property the National Trust after several years of the Trust managing it. The Throckmorton family lease Coughton Court from the National Trust who currently own it.

There had been a bad crash on the motorway causing a long delay which meant that we arrived at Coughton just in time for lunch. We found that Magnus Birch Throckmorton, the latest Throckmorton descendent was helping in the café. He got chatting to us about various things including the National Trust and how the National Trust had looked after the family and the property.

After lunch we visited the house first, where I forgot that the priest hole was part way up the spiral staircase which I had elected not to climb. I am fascinated by priest holes so we will have to go back.

We walked around the gardens, including taking a pathway on the nearside of the river bank, although it was a little early in the year to see them at their best. We were told that the best time to visit the gardens is in June.

On the way home, Mr C spotted a sign to a farm shop. We got there just before it closed and he was able to pick up the ingredients for Spaghetti Bolognese della Casa.

Breakfast was self-service and, as we had come to expect, there were only a few others in the breakfast room.

We drove to Salisbury to visit the Cathedral and tick off a third Cathedral of our trip in my Cathedral passport. It has been a long time since our previous visit and I had forgotten how lovely some of the Cathedral’s features are.

We had lunch in the Cathedral café where I chose mushrooms on ciabatta which was very tasty. I purchased a couple of guidebooks and a pin badge before leaving. We were hoping to visit Arundells, the former home of Edward Heath but we arrived to find that it was guided tours only on a Tuesday. Our HH membership does not cover guided tours which meant we would have to pay £15 each. We decided to leave Arundells for another day when we could explore the house at our own pace.

We returned to Winchester and had afternoon refreshments in that Cathedral’s café. It seems we like our Cathedral Café refreshment breaks. Suitably refreshed we set off on a walk to find a quiet pathway and secret garden that we had enjoyed our previous visits. We found the pathway but the entrance to the secret garden eluded us.

Our route took us past the Bishops Palace and Cheyney Court and through the archway to the delightful church of St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate which is always a joy to see inside. The route also took us along the River Itchen which was flowing fast after the recent rain. We also walked past remains of Nunnaminster & St Mary’s Abbey which I had completely forgotten about.

We returned to our hotel to find that the booked room service had not taken place (again). Our early morning cuppa had resulted in one of the teabags bursting leaving the contents of the bag in the bottom of the cup. We could easily have sorted this out for ourselves but to make a point Mr C went to reception and requested new cups along with missing tea, milk, sugar and biscuits!

Later we dined in The Royal Gurkha where I chose chicken shashlik, the best I have ever tasted. Mr C chose a spicy lamb dish which was hotter than he is used to; it brought tears to his eyes.

After dining we called in at the nearby Wetherspoons, which we knew would serve good wine and beer and would be open until (at least) 11pm. We had no intention of being sent to our room early like naughty little children for the second night running. We were able to chill out in a lovely vibrant atmosphere watching the world go by.

We arrived at the breakfast room a little later than usual to find that breakfast room had more people in it than on previous days. This meant that the self-service breakfast was warmer than the previous day.

We drove to Chichester to visit the Cathedral and get another stamp in my Cathedral passport. We enjoyed the Cathedral in a way that we didn’t when we stayed in Chichester many years ago. On our previous visit the space was full of artworks obscuring the architecture so we could not enjoy the Cathedral at its best.

We had lunch in the Cathedral Café, where after having had a cooked breakfast, I opted for an Apple Danish pastry (one of my five a day ????).

After lunch we walked around the nearby Bishop’s Palace gardens which looked delightful in the sunshine. As we walked through the town towards the car it was sad to see empty shops where businesses had closed in the main street. I was also saddened to see homeless people; I don’t remember seeing any on my previous visit.

We set the SatNav to avoid motorways and drove back to Winchester via a leisurely route through the countryside in glorious sunshine.

Later we dined in Brasserie Blanc where I chose vegetable risotto, which was delicious, and Mr C chose steak followed by a cheeseboard. After dining we called in at the nearby Royal Oak for a post dinner drink. The beer wasn’t to Mr C’s taste so we returned to the hotel for one last drink before retiring to our room for the evening.

We arrived at the hotel shortly after 10pm to be told that the bar had just closed! The girl behind the bar was on the phone to her boss at the time and explained that customers had just arrived and asked if they could be served. The answer was NO!

We walked off in disgust. We were not experiencing the advertised 5-star rating that the hotel advertises. So far, it was the worst ever hotel had I had ever experienced. We were both regretting booking the extra two nights on the spur of the moment, just because we could now that Mr C has retired.

It is the management of the various facilities which all seem to be subcontracted out that is the problem, the staff were mostly lovely. I suspect part of the problem is the hotel struggling to cover its costs. By now I was noticing that the quality of things such as serviettes and toilet paper had declined since we arrived.

The breakfast room was still very quiet and lacking atmosphere. The self-service offering was luke warm rather than hot.

After breakfast we chilled out in our room looking out over the Cathedral green before it was time to attend the 11.15 Easter Day service in the Cathedral. The service was excellent and we received communion from the Bishop and Archdeacon. When it came for the greeting part of the service, the Bishop walked up the aisle shaking people’s hands. As he shook mine, he said to me, ‘I had better not go to much further I might not get back in time’. He then walked his way back shaking hands on the opposite aisle.

Before leaving the Cathedral, we went to see the Easter Garden that the flower ladies had been creating during our visit the previous day. We once again met the Bishop and also the newly installed Dean as we headed out of the Cathedral into the sunshine.

We hopped in our car which was parked in the hotel car park, right next to the Cathedral. Our destination was Bucklers Hard which is a short walk down the river from Beaulieu. When we arrived, we had lunch in the Captain’s Table tea shop before visiting the museum.

The Museum documents the history of the 18^th century shipbuilding in the village of Bucklers Hard. Bucklers Hard is famous as a naval ship building centre. Warships for Nelson’s Navy were built there. The Museum also displays village life in the 1800s and how village life changed in the 19^th and 20^th century from lively shipbuilding activities to sleepy rural hamlet.

We then walked down to the harbour visiting the open house and church along the way. We arrived at the harbour shortly before a boat tour of the river was due to start. There were only six of us on the trip so we were able to see the views on both sides of the river, the captain highlighting points of interest along the way.

We had just enough time to briefly visit the exhibition of archaeology which displays items that were found during an excavation of the boatyard. We watched a video but the exhibition closed before we could fully explore the exhibits.

We freshened up and relaxed in our room, which had been serviced (no biscuits!) before dining in Chesil Rectory. The food was excellent and every bit as good as I remembered it when we last visited over 10 years ago. We both had duck as our main course and shared a rhubarb frangipane dessert.

It being Sunday the Crown and Anchor was closed so we returned to the hotel for a nightcap. It was quiet in the bar although there was a noisy group in the restaurant area.

After a while I heard the barman say ‘I think I can close the bar in 15 or 16 minutes. After about 10 minutes he told us he was closing the bar and that we were welcome to take our drinks to our room. So we asked him for another glass of wine to take to the room and were advised that the bar was already shut. Mr C said ‘I didn’t hear you call last orders’ and I asked if we could order a glass via room service. The response was ‘no we don’t do that any more the bar is a separate company from the hotel. Sorry Guys.’ He clearly wasn’t sorry at all and couldn’t have cared less!

We promptly left, both of us feeling underwhelmed by the experience.