Yorkshire

Thursday, October 07, 2010

What a day we’ve had -- wandering among the remarkable sights, both natural and man-made, of the Yorkshire countryside.  When we got up this morning, we looked out our windows on a lovely scene.  Our hosts’ daughter was greeting Max and Sid in their stalls and reading them for their morning exercise.  Her teenage daughter, dressed in her school uniform, was in the courtyard to spend a few minutes with the horses before heading off to start her day.  The sun was rising through the treetops and the misty fields and the whole scene was just idyllic.

As we headed off through the market towns of Ripon and Thrisk, the fields were shrouded in fog and/or mist – very atmospheric!  We climbed high into the Yorkshire Moors and drove through miles of heather – brown, now that their purple blossoms have passed.  That carpet of color must really be something to see!  From high on the moors, we had wonderful views down into the remarkably green valleys below, dotted with small villages, farms, and grazing sheep.

We had lunch in a tiny village widely acclaimed as the epitome of York’s “picturesque-ness”, Hutton-le-Hole.  A rushing stream flows through the green in the center of the little town.  Cottages, row houses, a church, and a pub border the green and sheep graze on it, and everywhere else; it’s a scene out of your favorite BBC television program.  We were particularly struck by the irony of the signs warning of a fine of 1,000 pounds for not cleaning up after your dog, while the sheep were free to leave their calling cards anywhere and everywhere.  And they did – all over the little village!

We made an extended stop was at Rievaulx Abbey, a remarkable ruin tucked in a valley in the moors.  The magnificent church and extensive ancillary buildings that once stood here were sold and plundered to finance Henry VIII’s ambitions.  This was the fate of all the monasteries in the land and this part of the country is dotted with their spectacular remains.  Whitby Abbey, prominently situated on the headlands of Yorkshire’s eastern coast, was our last stop of the afternoon.  Though its origins differed from those of Rievaulx, it suffered the same fate, and we are left with extraordinary ruins and lots of work for archeologists.

This day was picture-perfect; it could have leapt right off the pages of a coffee table book!