Images of England

1) Fog nestles in narrow valleys between the steep rounded hills above the sea as our camper maneuvers its seventh switchback on the single-lane road the GPS is directing us to take through Devon. We emerge onto on a narrow high ridge, still enveloped in fog, when dark, silent shapes materialize out of the formless mist ahead of us. A herd of horses stand on the pavement. As we slow to a crawl, they casually move aside, grazing on the brown grass that lines the road.  One lifts her head to watch us move past.  

2) The road bored through a tunnel of overhanging trees, its single lane widening occasionally just enough to allow two cars to scrape the bushes on either side and pass in opposite directions. Then, as we came around a bend, there was a large white gate closed across the road, connecting two sides of a narrow stone arch.  “Worthy Combe Toll Road”, a sign said. “In the absence of the Toll Keeper kindly put money into the slot of the lodge door.  Please close the gate.” I climbed out and opened the gate, handing my £3 to the man who came out the lodge door. He proceeded to earn his toll by helping to guide the camper through the narrow opening, mirrors pulled in, and all Joe’s driving expertise coming to the fore. We made it through unscratched and continued up the hill. 

3) Sometimes, when campground WiFi is particularly strong, Joe and I while away the evening watching Netflix shows. One of our favorites has been Midsomer Murders, featuring a very nice police detective who solves multiple gruesome killings amid cozy English villages.  Often as not, as the investigation reaches its climax, the village is having its quaint summer fête, complete with a small brass band, or fielding a game of cricket on the village green.  We have spent the last week in these villages, and watched several cricket matches from afar. Then on Saturday, we saw a sign along the road for the Corston village fête and had to go. It was straight out of the show: volunteers selling houseplants and homemade cakes and squash (punch), encouraging passers-by to pay £2 to throw six cricket balls at old plates – the prize for hitting them the satisfaction of loudly smashing something. Children and adults led a variety of purebred and mixed-breed dogs in a ring, competing for first, second and third place ribbons as a judge carefully examined each one and watched them circle. In the middle of the green, the brass band played.

4) I’m reading a book that takes place in the latter years of the rule of Henry VIII, when English reformers were tearing down abbeys and monastic churches and decrying the corruption of the Roman church for spending the nation’s fortune on religious buildings as the people starved.  A few of the grandest abbey churches survived by being transformed into parish churches, including the Abbey Church in Bath. Bath is a beautiful city, the home of hot springs along the river Avon that served as a bustling Roman settlement, then a thriving abbey and religious center, and still later a prime destination for Victorian spa tourism. 

Near Bath is Wells, where our friend Theo Butt Philip and his family hosted us overnight. Theo’s father took the family to Charlottesville for a sabbatical in 1993, and Theo and his sister attended Walker Upper Elementary.  More recently, in 2008, Theo came to Charlottesville to volunteer for the Obama campaign, and that’s where I met him.  He’s a ferociously active Lib Dem, having served on the City Council and as mayor of Wells (as did his mother before him), and has run to represent his district in Parliament. Today he lives in London with his partner Belinda and their 8-month-old daughter Rachael, but they were in Wells for the weekend as we were passing through. It was great to reconnect with Theo and meet his amazing family.  The Cathedral of Wells is one of our favorite yet – not least because a sign on the door said “Well-behaved dogs welcome inside”. 

Bath Abbey

 Wells Cathedral

 New friends and old in Wells

5) My visual image of England was of gently rolling hills and farms, dotted with castles and small towns. And those are certainly part of the landscape.  What I didn’t realize is how varied the geology is, and how stunning the countryside can be.  We have visited almost every national park in England, and seen volcanic mountains, high, desolate moors, steep rocky promontories, deep forest and fertile pasture. Oxmoor and the Lake District are perhaps the most dramatic, but all the national parks are worth visiting. Inside and outside the parks, public footpaths cross farm fields and mountains, guaranteeing right of access to see the wonders of this beautiful country.

5) And everywhere we go there are sheep.

6) The western Scottish coastline is as dramatic as we had been led to believe. There is a steam train that plies the narrow tracks between Fort William and Malaig, Scotland. It is the train used in the filming of Harry Potter, and Dumbledore’s final resting place is on an island visible from the train.  The Jacobite Train calls to mind the 1745 Scottish-led Jacobite Rebellion, and passes by a memorial to the Catholic Bonnie Prince Charlie, who rebels believed was the rightful heir to the British throne. 

7) There is a time for rest and relaxation, for retreat from a stressful, sometimes hostile world.  Without it, we can lose perspective and find ourselves darting from crisis to crisis with little effect, feeling frustrated and impotent.  At its best, a sabbatical is intended to provide rest and distance, both to recover from the stresses of daily life and to equip one for return to the fray, refreshed and with new perspective.  

For the first several months of our sabbatical, we concentrated on the rest and recovery. But increasingly now, we’ve been starting to think more about what we will do when we get back. This week, the President of the United States made it even clearer to the world how unsuited he is for the job – as if kidnapping children, browbeating Congress to build an unnecessary wall, appointing idiots to key positions and siding with fascists and white supremacists weren’t already enough evidence. We have seen that there is clearly little love for him in Europe, where the threat of an unstable America and a manipulative Russia could be existential.  And we know the damage his policies and his instability can cause at home, with a Republican Congress unwilling or unable to hold him in check. 

So my first priority will be working to get Leslie Cockburn elected to Congress from Virginia’s 5^thDistrict.  I have no illusions that a Democratic Congress will solve the nation’s problems in any kind of short term, but I know that a Republican Congress that is afraid to confront our disastrous president cannot be allowed to continue.  

I’ll be attending meetings, knocking doors, talking to friends and strangers, and even (shudder!) making phone calls to make sure that our district sends a Democrat to Congress to change the dynamics of power there.  

Are you with me?