In the last 400 years rising from the ashes twice; back to its glory yet again and being haunted for over a century ; the unique name Hinton Ampner– the ‘House on the Hill’ had enough reasons for us to explore it! Driving through the rolling green Hampshire countryside, we reached the historic 16th century […]

The sun blazed through the crystal clear sky as we caught the first view of the Highclere Castle– built on a site of an Iron Age fort and holding ancient tracks within the estate, it is one of England’s most beautiful Victorian Castles near London and Television serial’s Downton Abbey. Ever since over 100 countries […]

As the temperature touched 30 degrees and the sun blazed through the crystal clear sky we caught the first view of the Highclere Castle- one of England’s most beautiful Victorian-era Castles near London and Television serial’s Downton Abbey. Ever since over 100 countries aired the ‘global sensation’ Television serial Downton Abbey, I always anticipated fervently […]

Past playful children and attractive mothers we walked towards the red brick Georgian house – the melodic world of Hatchlands Park which is home to a collection of 42 historic keyboard musical instruments connected to famous composers called the Cobbe Collection. We were in England and on our way to look up an ‘ancient estate’ […]

The silhouette of the ancient Carlisle Fort appeared on the skyline as we walked up the sloping pavement. We were in the quiet town of Carlisle in North England, Britain’s most besieged border town, in the past. Carlisle Fort is the first fort on Roman Emperor Hadrian’s Wall commencing from Bowness-on-Solway, which was built to […]

Walking past panoramic emerald vistas – green meadows meeting sapphire sky, we approached the Greys Court family home. This was at one point of time a Castle, maybe a thousand years ago! Crunching ahead on the gravel path we caught the first view of the three storey brick and stone Elizabethan house from late 16th […]

Evading the speedy life of the nearby London city we walked up the ancient Holly Hill towards the attractive yet unpretentious Fenton House. It has been named after one of its early 19th century owners. We were about to discover its fine collections spanning four centuries since 1686 AD to finally being with the National […]

Admiring the beautiful 18th century sketch of the Red Lion family Pub, it was easy for me to decipher that today too; similarities do exist except for the Horse-carriage. I was in Knotty-Green, Buckinghamshire England. We were on trail of the early 20th century celebrated English writer of children’s books – Enid Blyton whose house […]

Rummaging through the heaps of children’s books at the book fair held in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan and finding stacks of titles by writer Enid Blyton, my thoughts reverted to a summer day in England.  It transported my mind to those times when we had visited Enid’s former home, the 16th century Old Thatch cottage, wrapped […]

On a rainy summer day, we stepped back into the Victorian era to relive memories of world renowned scientist Charles Darwin and his revolutionary theory of apes to humans – The Origin of Species at his family home – Down House in Kent England. Down House was an early 18th century ‘a good old and […]