[04.07.2007] The Heights - you couldn't really call this hotel anything else. Well maybe "Belle Vue" if it hadn't already been taken by every seaside guest-house from Margate to Blackpool. We had never been in this corner of England before, so had armed ourselves with a map of how to find the hotel. Out of Weymouth, across the causeway beside the magnificent Chesil Beach on to the Isle of Portland, then up through the unprepos [more]

[08.02.2007] When does a garden cease to be a garden and become a park, or an estate? About the same time, I reckon, as you can add an s, as in Kew Gardens. But Sheffield Park Garden resolutely sticks to the singular. Perhaps because it has Park in the title already, or feels it has a singularity of purpose and design. Whatever. It is certainly not a garden the way you and I understand it. Nor is it anywhere near the city o [more]

[08.11.2006] I was surprised that King's College Chapel was not yet in the catalogue. I thought it was just me not getting out enough, but now it seems you lot haven't visited it either. Do go. Don't put it off or just look at the pictures. It really is a jewel of English gothic architecture. Middle England and the wider world know King's from the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast live on Christmas Eve. I usually h [more]