Tilshead is a tiny, unremarkable village tucked away between Devizes and Salisbury in Wiltshire. You have to slow down to go through it because the houses are right on the road — a common feature in Britishland villages — and no doubt it’s an annoyance to do so, for those people steaming through the Salisbury Plain on their way to or from Stonehenge.
Yet if you stop, as I did, you can find little corners of sheer beauty in villages like Tilshead — such as Lavender Cottage:
Of course, thatched cottages are anything but rare in These Yerrr Parrrrts, as the locals call them, and no doubt the locals don’t think they’re remarkable. But they are to me, and I’ll post a few more from other such villages, as I stop to marvel at them. Please indulge me.
That’s a fair-sized “Cottage”……and quite handsome.
I had the opportunity to stay in Dorchester a couple of years ago. The bucolity of rural England is spectacular.
One of my aunts lives in Hindhead, SW of London. Every few years I get a chance to drop in, see her and the cousins.
Like you, I wander about the “green and pleasant land” stupefied at its beauty. It drives me to drink beer- local beer, in as many local pubs as my wife permits. No wonder the German side of my family wanted to grab the place back from the Norsemen.
I keep forgetting to suggest “The Prospect of Whitby” in Wapping, on the north bank of the Thames, with a balcony over the water. I can’t say much about the food, it was blotted out by the most excellent beers, drunk when the place was packed with the players of all nations from the Rugby World Cup 2015.
Athletes all, and gentlemen all, a wonderful afternoon, chatting with them.
And their young, adoring, female hangers on…Wow. Got me many a clout from the wife.