What to See in England Part 26

EAST WINDOW OF THE PRIORY AT WALSINGHAM.]

CHEDDAR CAVES, CHEDDAR, SOMERSET

=How to get there.=--Train from Paddington. Great Western Railway.

=Nearest Station.=--Cheddar.

=Distance from London.=--134 miles.

=Average Time.=--Varies between 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 21s. 4d. 13s. 4d. 10s. 8d.

Return 37s. 4d. 23s. 4d. ...

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Cliff Hotel," etc.

The village of Cheddar, a name which reminds one of the cheese for which the district is famous, is situated under the Mendip Hills, on the Cheddar river, a tributary of the Axe. The place was once a market town of considerable note, as the fine market-cross still testifies, but is now chiefly celebrated as a starting-point for visiting the wonderful natural beauties of the neighbourhood, the tremendous gorge through the Cheddar cliffs and the stalact.i.te caves being the most remarkable. The road from the village rises gradually, pa.s.sing the ma.s.ses of rock known as the "Lion," the "Castle Rock," the "Pulpit," and others, named from their wonderful resemblance to the work of human hands. The way winds between steep limestone walls and towering pinnacles, rising here and there to a height of between four and five hundred feet, and absolutely shutting one in from even the merest glimpse of the magnificent scenery in the valley below. There are paths here and there leading up to points of vantage, but the way is difficult and dangerous owing to the manner in which the pa.s.ses are honeycombed with caverns and fissures.

In the midst of the gorge on the right hand of the way lie the entrances to the marvellous stalact.i.te caves, the first of which was discovered in 1837, and the second in comparatively recent times. It is needless to say that the proprietor of each cave affirms his to be the better--as a matter of fact, both are well worth seeing. One looks with something like awe on the fantastic shapes of the stalagmites and stalact.i.tes in these huge caverns, where the moisture, percolating through the earth, has been dripping in the darkness for countless centuries, each lime-laden drop lengthening imperceptibly the stalact.i.te overhead and the stalagmite beneath, while the consequent splas.h.i.+ngs, and, in some parts, more sluggish dripping, make hundreds of quaint and suggestive forms above and below. The caverns are well lit up to display their beauties, and the admission is 2s. for a single visitor, or 1s. each for members of a party.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._

CHEDDAR CLIFFS.

The road leading to the limestone caves.]

NEWSTEAD ABBEY

THE BIRTHPLACE OF BYRON

=How to get there.=--Train from St. Pancras. Change trains at Nottingham. Midland Railway.

=Nearest Station.=--Newstead.

=Distance from London.=--134-1/4 miles.

=Average Time.=--Varies between 3-1/4 to 4-1/4 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 17s. 6d. ... 10s. 9-1/2d.

Return 35s. 0d. ... 21s. 7d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Station Hotel,"* Newstead. "Swan Hotel,"* Mansfield. "Midland," "White Hart," and "Green Dragon," and others.

Near Sherwood Forest, and not far from the town of Mansfield, is Newstead Abbey, the ancestral seat of the Byrons. Founded in 1170 by Henry II. as an expiation for the murder of Thomas a Becket, the abbey, at the dissolution of the monasteries, was given by Henry VIII. to Sir John Byron. The latter made it his home, altering it very little, but allowing the church to fall into ruins. The monks, before leaving their old home, hid the charters in the lectern, which they threw into the lake. About 100 years ago the lectern, still containing the charters, was discovered, and is now being used at Southwell. The "Wicked Lord Byron," the grand-uncle of the poet, allowed the abbey to fall into decay, and to spite his sons cut down a large number of splendid oaks.

Byron succeeded to the estate when a mere boy, and loved it so much that, even when in great need of money, he refused to part with it. At last he was obliged to sell the home, which he has so vividly portrayed in verse, to his old school friend Colonel Wildman. After the loss of the abbey, Byron left England, and died six years afterwards, in 1824, at Missolonghi, fighting for the independence of the Greeks.

The Abbey Church, though in ruins, is a very good example of Early English work. The abbey itself is full of interesting and historic rooms, one being the bedroom where Charles II. slept, retaining still the state bed, whose coverlet was embroidered by Mary Queen of Scots.

Edward I. is known to have stayed in the abbey, and the room which he occupied contains some splendid oak carving. Lord Byron's bedroom is just as he left it, with his college pictures on the walls and the writing-table that he used. Newstead is open to the public on Tuesday and Friday when the family are not in residence. Tickets may be obtained at the two hotels mentioned above which are marked with an asterisk.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._

NEWSTEAD ABBEY.

It contains Lord Byron's bedroom in exactly the condition he left it in 1818.]

THE WESs.e.x OF THOMAS HARDY'S ROMANCES

=How to get there.=--Train from Waterloo. L. and S.W. Railway.

=Nearest Station.=--Dorchester.

=Distance from London.=--135-1/4 miles.

=Average Time.=--Varies between 3 to 5-1/2 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 22s. 8d. 14s. 2d. 11s. 4d.

Return 39s. 8d. 24s. 10d. 22s. 8d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Antelope," "King's Arms," and other hotels.

=Alternative Route.=--Train from Paddington. Great Western Rly.

The centre of the district in the south-west of England which has been labelled with its ancient Saxon name of Wess.e.x, may be found at the old-fas.h.i.+oned town of Dorchester. This is the Mecca of the whole countryside so vividly portrayed in Mr. Hardy's numerous romances dealing with the rustic life of the west country. On market-days, Dorchester is crowded with carriers' vans and innumerable vehicles which have brought in the farmers and their families from remote corners of the surrounding country, and it is then that one is able to select examples of many of the characters created by the novelist. To get at these folk in their homes, one may journey in almost any direction from Dorchester. The streets of Dorchester are suggestive of Mr. Hardy's works at every turn, so much so that the wayfarer may almost feel that he is taking an expurgated part in _The Mayor of Casterbridge_. A large old-fas.h.i.+oned house near St. Peter's Church seems to correspond to Lucetta's residence--High Place Hall. Then, the comfortable bay-windows of the "King's Arms," an old hostelry belonging to coaching days, suggests recollections of Henchard, who dined there on the occasion of the memorable banquet, when he threw down the challenge so quickly taken up by Farfrae.

Going up South Street one pa.s.ses on the right the Grammar School, founded in 1579 by a certain Thomas Hardy, an ancestor of all the Dorset Hardys--Nelson's friend and the Wess.e.x novelist being the most distinguished among them. Mr. Thomas Hardy lives in a new red house known as "Max Gate," which is situated a short distance from Dorchester.

Eight miles away from the town is the village of Puddletown, known as "Weatherbury" in _Far from the Madding Crowd_. The church Mr. Hardy describes in his novel can be seen, but Warren's malt-house was destroyed more than twenty years ago. St. Peter's Church, Dorchester, of the Perpendicular period, has a Norman porch and contains two cross-legged rec.u.mbent effigies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._

DORCHESTER.

The centre of Mr. Thomas Hardy's "Wess.e.x."]

TINTERN ABBEY

=How to get there.=--Train from Paddington. Great Western Rly.

=Nearest Station.=--Tintern.

=Distance from London.=--145-1/2 miles.

=Average Time.=--Varies between 4-3/4 to 6 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 24s. 6d. 15s. 4d. 12s. 2-1/2d.

Return 42s. 9d. 26s. 10d. 24s. 5d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Beaufort Arms Hotel," "Royal George Hotel," "Rose and Crown Hotel," at Chepstow, 5-1/2 miles distant by road.

Tintern Abbey is situated in a level valley, surrounded on all sides by high green pastures and wooded hills, at the bottom of which the glorious river Wye glides in its circuitous course to the sea. The abbey is said to share with Melrose the distinction of being the most picturesque and beautiful ecclesiastical ruin in Great Britain. When the sun is setting, or better still, under the mystic light of the harvest moon, the picture formed by the roofless abbey in its perfect setting, needs a Wordsworth to do it justice.