Cotswolds Interlude, Hiking Day Four

Today was our fourth hiking day in England. We did 9.5 miles from Daylesford back to Bledington where we are staying. It was the hottest day of this heat wave week and the humidity remains brutal to our Southern California tastes, but somehow today was easier than yesterday, when I was wiped out by a 7 mile hike in the heat.

I love a trip where you feel that you are somewhere else, somewhere unique, not just the same sprawl with the same stores and sights. The Cotswolds are a great experience because nearly every building is quite old and because walking it also gives you a strong sense of time — this is what it would be like to walk from one small village to another on some errand.

There were many fine fields and meadows. I fell victim to muddy footing in one but injured only my dignity.

We walked through Adlestrop, immortalized by Edward Thomas’ evocative poem. Further on we reached Lower Oddington — apparently a corruption of “Odyn’s Town” — and went into St. Nicholas Church, which has changed very little structurally since 1300 or so. Its claim to fame is the 14th century Doom painting on the wall, much faded but quite visible:

“Doom” here means “judgment” - it’s Judgment Day. (Hence the nickname given to William the Conquerer’s great survey of property in England — the Doomsday Book — so called because it reflected unalterable judgments about ownership.) The menace is somewhat undermined by an adjacent fresco that people think was likely meant to mock Cardinal Wolsey. Memes are everywhere.

Easy day tomorrow, which my knees will appreciate.