Motoring Holidays
I.-A Cotswold Centre
Tux day of the haphazard motor tour has now almost ended. Touring from some central point has happily superseded the older method with far more pleasant results. A carefully- chosen hotel, centrally situated in relation to the district to be covered, can quickly be made a home. A typical example of an ideal touring centre lies close to the town of Stroud in the comparatively 'far Cotswolds. The exact spot is Rodborough on Minchinhampton Common, just over one hundred miles from London.
From this glorious spot hills which are almost mountains can be seen in all directions ; the scenery is restful and the air bracing. Golf courses abound in the neighbourhood, and many little excursions by car, occupying no more than a day, can be taken into Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
For instance, if you take the London road out of Stroud and then bear to the right, you will climb to one of the oldest of coaching roads-that which connects Minchinhampton with its glorious common. At one period the merchants of Stroud used this road to take their wool and cloth to the market centres of Cirencester and London. Winding around one of the many hills, it crosses a small plateau many hundreds of feet up. Then you come to Rodborough Hill, from which you will feel that all England can be seen ; such is its view of surpassing loveliness. The air is as fresh as in Switzerland. At Rodborough, one of the oldest hotels still exists, though it has been very much modernized, while yet another good hotel lies adjacent at pretty Amberley Village.
Naturally, you will wish to see the old town of Cirencester, which many like, though wrongly, to pronounce " Cisester." To the native it is known as either Cirencester or " Cieeter." Quite easily reached from Minchinhampton, it lies across the common and the plateau, the end of which joins the main road leading for a further five or six miles into the town itself.
Cirencester has often been called the capital of the Cotswolds and, indeed, was the old Roman Metropolis of the West. No one visiting the town misses the church, which is worth going many miles to see. There are four pia's of hounds near by. One would hardly suspect the history of Cirencaqter to he of a turbulent nature, yet many historic. events inti- mately concern the town. Two places of great interest to visitors are St. John's Hospital, a little gem of a place hidden away in a corner, and one of the tr.o3t beautiful private parks in all England round Cirencester House.
With Cirencester left behind, you may wend your way to Burford and Oxford. Closer still at hand is the village of Fairford, renowned both for the windows of its church (the Church of St. Mary) and its trout fishing. Such stained glass, the work of Flemish glaziers, is not to be seen elsewhere in the country. Returning by another route, you may go through Quenington and Bibury and see much of the life of the Cotswold villages, where oxen are used at the plough to this
Previous page
