I forgot to mention in my last blog that the Swilcan burn runs through the Easter Kincaple farm before it reaches The Old Course. It took about 10 minutes to walk from the farm house to the burn, and here are a couple of pictures, one on the farm, the other on the course.
Anyway, we left St Andrews in reasonable weather and headed across country to the Kincardine Bridge. As we were following the route we had taken to get to St Andrews, it was nice to see the countryside with the sun shining. But the sun did not last, and as we climbed through the boarder country and past the Lake District on the M7/M6, the mist and rain returned.
We found Rob and Sal’s with no difficulty, and spent a couple of enjoyable days there, including a visit to Bolton Abbey. Partly in ruins from Henry V111’s reformation, and partly still used as a Parish Church, and set in lovely riverside grounds, it was a very pleasant place. Of interest were a set of six stained glass window depicting 36 biblical scenes, by the 19th century designer Pugin. Pugin was responsible for the design of many stone churches in Tasmania, even though he never came to Australia.
At the end of our visit, we headed for Fleet to catch up with Kate, Roy and the girls. We had no difficulty with the first couple of kilometres or so, but missed a turning onto the M62, and ended going the wrong way. When we realised our mistake, we thought we would cut across country to get to the M1, but found ourselves right in the middle of Huddersfield. Eventually we did reach the M1, but it took a long time, and we arrived at Fleet, about an hour after Rob and Sal had arrived, even though they had left home about an hour after us. But we saw some lovely countryside and small villages. Arriving at Fleet a bit later than we had intended, we had little time to get ready to go to the Wellington Arms for dinner. The Welly was great. We had an excellent meal, and met a young woman, Bex, with whom Amy-Ann had worked when she was there last year. The two other staff we met were travellers like Amy-Ann had been, and had only be there a few weeks. The girl who brought the bottle of wine (an Australian pinot noir) to the table missed the glass completely when she tried to pour a drop for tasting, so asked if we would mind pouring it ourselves. Amy-Ann might relate to this! Unfortunately we had forgotten to take the camera, so have no photos from this memorable evening.
The following day we had a look around Fleet in the morning, and there are some wonderfully large houses set in nice grounds. But I also understand there are a lot of people in these houses mortgaged to the eyeballs, and having difficulty keeping up with their repayments! There are quite a lot of high-flyers who have had company cars, big houses etc, recently made redundant from what were reckoned to be well-paid secure jobs in IT and banking, that have now come a cropper. Having said that, there are still a lot doing very nicely thank you. We went to another nearby pub, The Crown and Cushion, for lunch. This was very pleasant, and after lunch, whilst Roy took Rob and Sal to Gatwick for their plane to Spain, we went with Kate and Martha to the nearby village of Farnham. We went to one shop which had ridiculously over-priced goods, (a set of six Laguiole steak knives at £135.00) commensurate with the supposed wealth of the area. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts. Then, whilst the ladies of our small party wandered around the shops, I retired to a 16th century pub for another pint of beer, and waited for them there. That evening we had an excellent BBQ, and just sat in the garden until about 11pm, it still being very warm. During the couple of days we spent at Fleet, the daytime temperature was just about 30. When we left on the morning of July 26, Martha treated us to a small house recital, singing an aria from Xerces, and Schubert’s ‘Trout’. Roy accompanied her on the piano, and it was a lovely way to end a very pleasant sojourn at Fleet.
We took a cross country route to Margate, avoiding the M25, and passed through some lovely villages. We stopped for lunch at a pub in the village of Shere, and arrived at Margate late in the afternoon. Again the weather was beautiful, with the temperature about 28, and we sat in the garden with Geoff and Pat, and consumed a bit more wine, beer and scotch than was probably good for us, but it was a very pleasant evening.
Slingsby's Miscellany 