We started this day wanting to avoid a return to New Forest.  So instead, we found a nice-looking trail on the website for the nearby Cranborne Chase National Landscape.  Supposedly, this trail would take through fields, woodlands and rural villages.  Instead, it ramble endlessly, often with seeming dead ends, crossing private property unsigned, up and down, through not particularly scenic landscapes.  The trail had not been maintained, and had segments had clearly not been walked for maybe years.  To top it all off, a long segment of the trail involved walking along a busy road with minimal walking space for pedestrians.  However, near the end of the trail was the lovely St Edith of Wilton Church.  Steeped in history and intrigue, this church dates back to a sordid story about one of the earliest kings of england and a captured (or maybe seduced?) nun, who would become his wife (or mistriss) before getting sent away.  Fascinating people, those English kings.

We also had a delicious lunch and the best sticky toffee pudding of our trip at the Wyndham pub.

After lunch, we headed along some fairly narrow one-lane roads to Old Wardour Castle, which is a ruin and a victim of the English Civil War.  But the stone stairways are still magnificent, and by wandering the ruins, we definitely felt the scale of the place.  Mind you, this was upper crust territory only.  Peasant rabble like us would have been strictly off-list. 

Dover Castle has been on my bucket list for a long time, owing to its importance throughout England’s history.  The site where the castle now sits was likely fortified in the Iron Age.  The Romans built a lighthouse here, most of which still stands and was converted into a Saxon belfry.  The current castle dates from 1179, expanded and improved by Henry II to impress other European kings.  In WW2, the tunnels under Dover Castle served as the secret command center for Operation Dynamo (evacuation of soldiers from Dunkirk).  Not far from the castle are the famous White Cliffs of Dover.  A few miles away from the castle in Dover is the fabulous Dover Museum, which contains the remains of a 3500 year old boat, capable of crossing the English Channel. 

Dinner was a bit odd.  We went to several pubs for dinner, but all of them were booked up.  We even accidentlaly popped into one that only served booze (no food).  Finally, we ended up at the Bell Inn, and they normally did not serve food either.  But on Friday nights, they set up a pizza oven in their backroom (closet?) and serve pizza there.  No plates, just pizza.  But by this time, we were very hungry, so we enjoyed our pepperoni pizza (which was better than we expected).

Our last day on this wonderful vacation was spent at two places, each historically important and each with beautiful gardens.  However, we really enjoyed only one.  The first visit was to Hever Castle, which was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn (second and ill-fated wife of Henry VIII).  The castle was later purchased by American millionaire William Waldorf Astor, who spent a fortune restoring it.  To be honest, though, this place felt more like Disney England than a historical home.  It is extremely popular, and the grounds are beautiful, but it was so crowded and so commercialized that it did not really feel authentic.  Our second stop was Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill.  Run by the National Trust, Chartwell did an excellent job of telling Churchill’s many stories (the good and the bad).  We loved it.  We also spent some time in the gardens, which are beautiful in the fall.  It is fitting that our final stop in England (Chartwell) was a beautiful National Trust house with a lovely fall garden, just as our first stop in England (Hinton Ampner) was a beautiful National Trust house with a lovely fall garden.