CREATE A PURPOSE FOR YOUR VISIT

There is always so much to do and see that creating an overall theme for your trip can help to focus your time and travels.  I’ve listed a few of the goals that we have imposed on our trips in the past so you have an idea what I am talking about. Of course, your particular  proclivities and avocations will dictate your specific choices and locations.  

We spent one trip investigating Arthurian Legends in the Somerset/Glastonbury area; the poetry of Wordsworth and the walks of Dickens established parameters for our visit to the Lake District; research I was doing on William Penn restricted us to areas of Suffolk and Chorleywood in the northern suburbs of London;  the travels of Saints Cuthbert, Bedes, and Wilfred were focused in the cold climes of  Northumberland; following in the footsteps of the walks that C.S. Lewis took in Devon was a delight;  and walking  much of the Pilgrim’s Way from South London to Canterbury Cathedral covered lovely bits of the South Downs.  In addition, we have searched for stone circles--seeking out the smaller  B.C. offerings which can be found off the beaten paths.  Sadly, impressive Stonehenge is commercialized and access restricted, but Avebury monoliths of Wessex still allow an up close experience.  Less esoteric efforts included caves, stones, gates, gardens,  and songs sung in tin mines.

  Bring a small spiral notebook to record what you see and your reactions.  You will find that your ‘turn of phrase’ will quickly improve as you jot down specifics of a conversation or the name of an exotic flower or wall stone design provided by a local farmer. Both my wife and I have taken to the whimsical folk renderings that many artists have displayed in depicting the English coast and countryside,  so we regularly visit an ever expanding array of galleries in hopes of finding just the right piece for our library wall. 

Next year I’d like to shape our perambulations around  John Bjeteman’s poetry, especially his writings on the Cornish churches, vistas, and saints.  He was poet laureate in the seventies and eighties of England, and both my wife and I fell in love with his sonorous, thoughtful, and so, so lyrical descriptions of his beloved West country.  I am going to digress slightly and relate just how we were introduced to Bjeteman’s poetry, because the circumstances surrounding this discovery provide justification for the very tack that this essay is pursuing—discovering England through walks, people and places that the tour guides and busses cannot possibly provide.