Tuesday, June 19, 2018. The Rollright Stones and Hidcote Manor Garden

After breakfasting on

poached eggs and toast, we took off for the Rollright Stones while Chris and Laurie went for a walk. The King’s Men stone circle was built around 2500 B.C., but was not a burial site. They are oolitic limestone, are very heavily weathered, and covered with lichen. The circle stands about 31 meters in diameter. This is the easternmost stone circle in Britain. Experts believe that the circle originally was continuous with a portal. About 105 stones remain. Near the circle was a set of three women dancing in a circle that was constructed out of sticks. Abby calls them the willow wiccans.

Four hundred meters east of the stone circle is the Whispering Knights, a portal dolmen burial chamber that dates from 3500 B.C., approximately when farming began in the area. At one time these portal dolmen were thought to have originally been within a long barrow, but recent excavations suggest that they were originally free-standing and intended to impress people. Unfortunately the capstone fell off in the 18^th century so it is not as impressive as it used to be. It may have taken 60 people over a month to move and erect the stones.

The last of the Rollright Stones is the King Stone, across the highway from the other two monuments. It marks a Bronze Age burial site and dates from about 1500 B.C. There was a Bronze Age round cairn nearby, as well as a Bronze Age barrow nearby, neither of which were clearly distinguishable today.

We got back in the car and drove another 13 miles or so to Hidcote Manor Garden. Fodor’s calls Hidcote  “arguably the most interesting and attractive large garden in Britain.” The garden was created by an American, Lawrence Johnston, in phases between 1907 and 1938. He gifted Hidcote to the National Trust in 1948. Johnston brought back specimen plants from all over the world.

The garden is separated into “rooms” that are divided by hedges or walls. We visited the old garden, the red borders garden the beech “allee,” the long borders garden, the orchard and the lily pond. The long borders garden was Abby’s favorite; it had delphinium that was over six feet tall and thistle plants that were ten feet tall. Plants grow much larger here than at home. Near the entrance is a spirea bush that is 20 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter. It is pruned to look like a tree.  According to Fodor’s, “Besides the variety of plants, what’s impressive are the different effects created, from calm open spaces to areas packed with flowers.”

On the way back to the Mill Stream Cottage, Abby picked some blue flowers by the side of the road to freshen the bouquet that had been left for us by the cottage manager. At about 4:00 p.m., Chris, Laurie and I walked next door to the Old Mill Café to have cream tea with scones. Laurie had coffee-flavored cake with her tea. Chris had breakfast tea while I drank peppermint tea.