Bright and early, we hopped onto the tube to head to the English countryside. Our first stop was Wilton house, where the Earls of Pembroke have lived since the 1400s. The current Earl of Pembroke is a young guy, no more than 30 years old. Our tour guide referred to him as “quite dishy”, and boy, she wasn’t lying! Then she told us, “sorry, ladies, he just announced his engagement!” His fiancée is only 23 years old and as I thought of that, I realized how strange it would be to realize you’re marrying into all of that wealth and that ancient estate. Anyway, enough about the “dishy” Earl. The estate is quite famous, as many movies have been filmed there, including two of my favorites, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I was amazed at how not crowded it was, and later found out that they had opened it early just for us. Hallelujah—it was wonderful to be in a place that wasn’t swarming with tourists. The home is famous for its single cube and double cube rooms. The single cube means that the room is perfectly square—it is 30x30 feet. In Pride and Prejudice, this is the room that Georgiana Darcy is playing the piano in when Elizabeth Bennett is touring the house and watching her. It was so cool to actually be inside there! Outside, the gardens were impeccably kept and there was an exquisite bridge, modeled after the Rialto Bridge in Venice, which we were able to walk on, even though it is typically closed to the public. At the end of our tour, we headed over to the little café that is situated on the grounds where they had freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade and pastries for us. I briefly stopped in the gift shop and saw a copy of one of my favorite children’s books that I no longer have because it got ruined somehow. I haven’t seen it in years. It’s called, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and deliriously happy at having found it, I snatched it up right away. What a delightful way to begin the day!
Next we were off to the Salisbury Cathedral which boasts the tallest spire in England. I remembered studying it in my History of Architecture and Furnishings class a year ago, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what it looked like. Upon reaching it, I was blown away by how beautiful it is. For that matter, I was blown away by the whole town of Salisbury is. The church stands tall and slender, ornate, but not ostentatious. After chilling on the lawn for a bit, waiting for our appointment time, it was time to go inside. Salisbury was quite different from other Gothic cathedrals we’ve seen because most of the glass is not stained glass. Although I absolutely ADORE stained glass, it was nice to see some windows that were just clear and beautifully mullioned. Our brief history of the cathedral contained some amazing facts. Among those were that the cathedral took a century to complete, and was completed in the 1300s. I couldn’t believe how OLD it was! It was now time to begin our ascent, where we would be walking across the top of the vaulting and up into the spire itself. Just as was expected, the journey meant a WHOLE lot of spiral stairs, except this experience required you walking up tiny wooden staircases that were so exposed that you could see everything beneath you. It was a bit unnerving, but mostly exhilarating. While we were up there, we were able to see the mechanisms that run the bells and heard the bells loud and clear when the clock chimed three. Well, I could go on forever about how amazing seeing the inside was, but I guess I’ll wrap it up. At the end of our tour, we had the opportunity to go out on the tower of the cathedral and take in the view from about 254’ up. I absolutely LOVED it and got some amazing pictures of this quaint little town.
The last stop of the day was the infamous Stonehenge. We took a cab from the cathedral and I sat up in front with our cab driver. The cab ride to and from Stonehenge was one of my favorite parts of the day because it meant being able to chat with this lovely, older British man. He was so fascinating, because during the course of the trip, he mentioned having been to college and that he and his family go about 2 or 3 times to European cities to take in the culture there. He knew quite a bit about design and architecture and reminisced about his childhood when his father used to take him and his brothers to Stonehenge to play on the stones on Sundays, before they were roped off. He said that back in those days, tourists really hadn’t discovered it yet and so they would have the whole place to themselves. How magical that must have been! Stonehenge itself was absolutely amazing, even despite the fact that it was quite a bit smaller than I had imagine. We had a fascinating audio tour and I learned much about the construction, the possible uses, and the legends surrounding Stonehenge. Equally as impressive as the stones themselves is the countryside surrounding Stonehenge. Fields spread out on all sides around you and you truly feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. It was very tranquil and the sun was beginning to set once we were done touring the site. On the way home, I once one again chatted with my new friend and he told me all about his experience with seeing The Last Supper by DaVinci in Milan. As I hopped out of the cab to get on the train, the cab driver told me how nice it was to meet me and I reciprocated. What a day—the English countryside and a new friend.
