Charles Dickens on Walking

The sum of the whole is this:

Walk and be happy; walk and be healthy.

The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1879)

Any dry land near here?

Need to get the old welly's out!
Best
Anne
Walk the Landscape

Sunset over the Cotswolds in late November

Happy hiking

Anne

Walk the Landscape

A walk through the English Civil War battlefield at Edgehill

The Battle of Edgehill (23rd October 1642) was the first battle in the English Civil War, when Charles I went to war against the English Parliament.  They disagreed on matters of religion and on their rights to rule the country.  Charles raised his Standard on 22nd August in Nottingham and the first major encounter between the two sides was at Edgehill in the midlands.

The battle lasted around 4 hours and each side had about 15,000 fighting men.  1,500 men were killed and both sides claimed victory in this indecisive battle, the first of many encounters over the next 4 years.

Although there is not much evidence of the battle on the ground today we were able to walk over the Royalist positions on the southern part of the battleground.

Dragoons and musketeers from both sides hid in the hedges on the flanks of the battlefield

The trees on the slope at Edgehill were planted 100 years after the battle

Royalist Pikemen, Musketeers, Cavalry and canon ... 

had to make their way down this slope to the battle line 

 Looking from the battlefield towards Avon Dassett

Ridge and furrow, as seen here, covered the battlefield

Effigy of Captain Henry Kingsmill in St Peters, Radway, a Royalist officer killed during the battle

 

 Princes Charles and James (our future kings) stayed here in Arlescote 

on the night before the battle

The memorial to the Battle of Edgehill 

on the B4086, south of Kineton, Warwickshire

A good walk on a cool sunny day.

Best
Anne
Walk The Landscape

Malmsbury, a quiet, unspoiled Cotswold town

Went to a festival about the 'Philosophy of Walking' recently and it was my first visit to Malmsbury.
What a lovely little Wiltshire town it is, snuggled to the south-east of the Cotswold Hills. Here are a few pictures of the abbey, the town and the lovely Abbey Gardens.

Happy walking through the Cotswolds in our unusually warm autumn weather.

Anne
Walk the Landscape

A lovely day walk in the Cotswolds

Happy hiking

Anne

Shakespeare's 450th Birthday Procession

Stratford-upon-Avon, where William Shakespeare was born, is just a few miles from the beautiful town of Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds.

This year on Shakespeare's 450th  birthday, 23rd April, the annual procession was supported by hundreds of devotees from local schools, colleges and churches, national and international societies and organisations, as well as individuals, all wearing sprigs of rosemary for remembrance and carrying bouquets of flowers to lay at his grave. It also featured a very large birthday cake.

Band leading the Procession

The huge birthday cake celebrating Shakespeare's 450th birthday

A clergyman in the procession wearing a sprig of rosemary for remembrance

Flowers laid at Shakespeare's grave in Holy Trinity parish church
William Shakespeare is buried next to his family in front of the altar, and there is a bust of him on the left wall (see picture).   It is thought to have been modeled from a cast of his face taken shortly after his death on 23rd April, 1616, at the exact age  52.

You can also visit Shakespeare's birthplace and grave at the start of the Shakespeare's Way Trail, or as part of a customised walking tour through Classic Cotswold Towns and along the northern section of the Cotswold Way. Contact us to find out more.

Have a great summer of walks

Anne