Tips and tidbits for travel and for fun
A Room of One’s Own
The Rutland Arms Hotel, Bakewell
Set right on the square in the Peak District market town of Bakewell, the Rutland Arms is a bit of Georgian history waiting to be savored. Bakewell pudding was supposedly invented in its AA rosette kitchen, and Jane Austen reputedly stayed here while visiting nearby Chatsworth and polishing up Pride and Prejudice.
Visitors today are affordably cosseted in 35 guest rooms and dine in vintage elegance at The Square restaurant. Guests enjoy not only the lovely town mansion built in 1804 for the Duke of Rutland, but picturesque Bakewell and the surrounding Peaks as well. This is a welcoming “olde world” three-star hotel that makes an excellent, comfortable base for following Claire Hopley’s footsteps through Derbyshire.
The Rutland Arms Hotel
The Square
Bakewell, Derbyshire
DE45 1BT
Tel: 01629 812812
www.rutlandbakewell.co.uk
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COURTESY OF THE RUTLAND ARMS
The British Heritage
PUZZLER
Last issue we posed this: “I am indeed a spectacular ruin, located on the banks of a famous river. Prayers have been said here and poetry inspired by me. J.M.W. Turner painted me more than once. Where am I?”
In the lower Wye Valley just a few miles from Chepstow, Tintern Abbey sits in a beautiful narrow cleft beside the River Wye. One of the greatest monastic ruins in Wales, the Cistercian foundation was once among the most important monasteries in Britain.
Now puzzle this: I was born in York in 1907. I became the technical virtuoso of 20th-century poetry, and a school of writers was named after me. As an older man, I became well known for my eccentricity, wit and faith. Who am I?
Be a Puzzler player and email your answer to [email protected].
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DANA HUNTLEY
In the British Heritage Mailbag
“We have returned to Britain a number of times, and it seems the journeys have been more rewarding with each succeeding trip. Last May, we felt we really got it right. We relied heavily on a fantastic reference book: Hudson’s Historic Houses and Gardens of Britain. This magnificent full-color guide is published annually and is organized by geographic regions, making planning relatively easy. My wife’s prime objective was a pilgrimage to the gardens of Great Dixter, and I had always wanted to visit Canterbury and Hastings. With the aid of the Hudson’s map and listings, we identified Royal Tunbridge Wells as the ideal base from which to venture forth. We saw not only our prime objectives, but many more of the fabulous properties in the Weald of Kent, full of surprise and mystery—including Chartwell, Deal Castle, Dover Castle, Rye, Hever Castle, Bodiam Castle, Knole, Scotney Castle Gardens and Penshurst Place.”
Paul Whitty
Louisville, Kentucky
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Sites for the Savvy
- www.londontown.com A great source for what’s happening in town
- www.nationaltrust.org.uk Plan your NT visits, and check out events
- www.alva.org.uk All the bumph on leading attractions across Britain
- www.bbc.co.uk The vast online home of the BBC.
- www.nationalrail.co.uk Plan your train journeys anywhere in Britain
- www.londontheatre.co.uk Get tickets to what’s on and when in the West End.
A Snowdrop Addendum
Following her story on snowdrops in the last issue, Siân Ellis sent along this charming anecdote.
Dave and I went to the snowdrop lunch at Colesbourne Park yesterday. Very enjoyable. There was a polite young Japanese lady there, whom I took to be staff. Then, chatting at lunch, Dr. John Grimshaw (gardens manager) told me the story of how she turned up one day with a suitcase, explaining she was a “garanthophile.” Sir Henry and Lady Elwes felt sorry for her, took her under their wing after she had looked around the garden, and then put her back on the train to Heathrow. Now every year she telephones and appears for two weeks in Jan/Feb, helps the Elwes family with open days, and stays with them! Apparently her mother-in-law feels she neglects her husband in Japan, but she is unrepentant about her annual galanthophile adventure. “I leave him frozen food in the freezer,” she says.
It seemed such an amusing little vignette, of the obsession of galanthophiles and how the Elwes, despite being a little nonplussed, have let the lady come and stay every year—after all, she works for free!
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PHOTOLIBRARY
Coming Up in British Heritage
- Shipshape and Bristol Fashion
- British Heritage’s 30th Anniversary!
- Life Below Stairs
- Sailing the Cinque Ports
- A Passport to Hidden England
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Author, Author!
You have seen her byline for years in British Heritage; now meet Claire Hopley, in her own words.
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DANA HUNTLEY
When I was a teenager growing up in Chester I wanted to be a journalist, and later I edited my university’s newspaper. But somehow I was diverted into teaching English, and only began freelance writing after several years of teaching in England and later in Massachusetts. I’ve always written about topics that interest me: travel, literature, history and food. My articles have been appearing in British Heritage since the later 1980s. Initially, I wrote mostly articles about British culinary history, though now my topics are usually travel or social history. My fascination with food history remains, however, so I was thrilled last year when my two books The History of Tea and The History of Christmas Foods and Feasts were published in England by Pen and Sword books. I’ve also written a cookbook called New England Cooking: Seasons and Celebrations, published by Berkshire House in America.
Currently, I am starting work on a history of mincemeat, as well as writing fiction reviews and travel articles. Travel writing comes from my wanderlust. The desire to see another part of the world brought me to Massachusetts. It also got me teaching appointments in Russia, Poland and Greece, and takes me on trips as often as I can arrange them. When I am not seeing new places, I enjoy living by a little lake in western Massachusetts, but am always absolutely thrilled when it’s time to leave for my annual three-month visit to our flat near the River Dee in Chester.
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