England 2017, Friday, 5/26/17

Another sunny day in Cornwall.  Our last at The Old Parsonage guest house.  The breakfasts here in the solarium have been memorable and delectable.  All agreed they have been the best of the trip so far, and the accommodations (size, quality of bed and shower, proximity to activities, garden, etc.) were all top notch.  Well done Margaret and Morag.

Today is a travel day with sightseeing involved.  Our first sop is Cotehele House, another National Trust property outside the city of Tavistock.  As usual, we get the entirely wrong road out of Boscastle, but somehow manage to find the direct route after ending up again in Tintagel, opposite of where we intended to be.

Cotehele (an old Norman name meaning House on the Hill, and also the maiden name of the founder's wife,) was established in the late 1400's by the Edgecumbe family, who owned it up until it was given over to the National Trust in 1947. As the family moved out in the 1700's to build another large estate in nearby Plymouth, but continued to visit, little further remodeling was done.  Therefore, it is very period appropriate and very well maintained.

The gardens are spectacular, as are all that we have viewed, and they are vast.  Particularly striking were the Valley Garden and the Cut Flower Garden. Throughout the house, there are vases of fresh flowers, all grown in the gardens and changed out almost daily.

A number of royal visitors have stopped at the house over the years, so there are bedrooms named after Kings and Queens.  As at all National Trust houses we have visited, the Guides posted in each room have a wealth of knowledge and detail about the story and furnishings in each room.  In this house, there are tapestries covering every livable room, providing warmth and texture.  There are so many that there is a separate Tapestries Tour available.

This house is located along the Tamar River in the Tamar River valley.  The property includes a length of River shore, and we visited this area at the end of our tour, seeing the sailing ship 'Shamrock" and walking briefly along the shore before mounting our chariot to move onward across the Dartmoor.

We proceeded eastward, across the Dartmoor National Park.  The moor areas are so-called because of the outcropping a of a granite cap over the area.  Dartmoor is the largest of these in Great Britain. The area is bleak looking and also receives more rain than any other part of the Southwest.  Due to the centuries of vegetation (think peat) covering the area, it is very absorbent, but gives up its moisture slowly, hence often damp.  In the center is a small village known as Two Bridges, and a hotel, originally a coaching in, now called Two Bridges Hotel.  We stopped here for a true Devon Cream Tea break, with luscious cakes, the best scone ever (no imbedded fruit or cheese) and real clotted cream and strawberry jam.  Heaven in the form of sugar, butter and carbohydrates.  Marvelous.

Onward we headed towards Winchester, staying at The Star and Garter Hotel in the nearby city of Andover.  We stop along the way to gas up the car and purchase some wine and crackers to go with our remaining genuine cheddar cheese as our meal for the evening.  We arrive at our destination (somehow stumbling upon it after going towards town Centre hoping to find High Street,) around 7:45.  A long and site filled day.