A magical mystery tour

Abstract

This month, let me take you on a three-mile walk. In my opinion, it is one of the finest and most fascinating walks in England. If you know English geography and history well, you may want to try and guess its location. I will give you only one clue: it ends at a famous hospital. I suggest that we start at the northernmost point of the walk, on some farmland. The fields we are about to go across have some charming names: Bush Field, Barn Field, Hill Field, Lower Weild Pightle and Upper Weild Pightle. If you look around at the hedgerows, you will see at least fifteen species of trees, including wild service, denoting that the hedges go back to medieval times. Some of the oaks mark out the boundaries of the original Saxon parishes. This is farmland that has barely changed over many centuries. In a minute we will cross our first stream. You may want to cast a glance behind you at a delightful architectural folly behind us, called the Great Wall. Its design was based on the fortifications of Bavarian hilltop towns, but only a third of it was ever finished before the First World War put paid to the project. Once we have …