Wed Sept 10. Kemsing. 24 km.

Today was a lot of pleasant country walking. It still surprises me how close villages and towns are to each other, however! And my observation from Italy holds true here - no point getting excited when the guide book announces a lake - it is always a pond. Here is one on the outskirts of Deptford.

A friendly lady gave me an impromptu tour of her church, St Margaret of Antioch in Darenth. The outer walls of the church include Roman bricks. The church dates from the Saxon period, but of course has been modified over the years. The sanctuary is Norman with a medieval rood screen. She showed me how small the church used to be, and an opening in what used to be the outer walls so that humble people who didn’t own their own pew inside could follow the service from outside. The wooden door has bullet holes supposedly from Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers. Time does seem to ‘collapse’ in such a building.

A lot of the walk was along the river Darent. This is known as a ‘chalk river’, as the water comes out of chalk beds (quite rare) and is very pure. Supposedly it is an excellent river for trout fishing, although I didn’t see any sign of fish life. The photo shows a very old barrier to keep cattle from wandering up stream. Supposedly Charles Dickens (yes, him again!) came here to fish.

It was a very inexpensive day. Breakfast was included at my hotel this morning, so I saved most of it for lunch and supper. The walk passed by a Roman villa, a Tudor castle, and a special farm shop, all closed. But the little country churches are very savvy - all with easy ways to make an electronic contribution - so that is where my money went. I don’t think I’ll need any cash in Britain - card readers are the norm everywhere.

And it rained on and off - English rain must be why the trees are so large and impressive!

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Sat Oct 4. London.

19 days walking on pilgrimage paths for a total of 395 km or 245 miles on foot (not that arduous - an average of 20.7 km per day, and lots of ‘rest days’ staying put in one place). All of that undone in 1.5 hours on a Eurostar train. I’m not entirely sure what conclusion I’m drawing from that comparison, but I’m back where I started, in London. On my way to my lodgings (I’m staying in a Buddhist retreat centre) I decided to visit the first visitable place to cross my path, which turned out to be the Foundling Museum. Horrified by the sight of infants being abandoned on 18th c London streets, a prosperous seaman, Thomas Coram, spent 17 years raising awareness and funds, as well as obtaining royal permission to build London’s first children’s charity. Opened in 1739, the Foundling Hospital continued its work until the 1950s, and actually is still active as a non-institutional resource, under a different name. Here is a photo of it in 1935. So many similarities to ...

Fri Oct 3. Lille.

I had a lovely day in Lille. In fact, all my days on this trip have been lovely! In the morning I went to the very large Palais des Beaux-Arts. This museum holds the largest collection of works of art of any French institution outside Paris. The collection started at the time of the French Revolution as the works of art of the nobility and of the church were confiscated, and continued on apace due to various enthusiastic municipal governments. By 1892 the collection was so large and important that the Palais, its current house, was constructed in the centre of town. The first fun aspect was the recent work of the Swiss artist Felice Varini who used the museum’s interior as his canvas. The oldest works of art are in the ‘basement’, beautifully displayed. Look at the marvellous three dimensionality of this (flat) marble plaque sculpted by Donatello (c 1435) showing Salomé dancing for the head of John the Baptist. And modern technology brings statues alive by giving them back t...

September 5

I landed at Heathrow this morning at 6 am, a very inconvenient time to get a room and rest! But my student residence accommodation includes a common room with handy couches for a short snooze. The neighbourhood abuts on Regent’s Park, complete with gorgeous flowerbeds. The Queen Mary’s rose garden in Regent’s Park. My neighbourhood wandering took me to the Wallace House which used to be one of the homes of the marquesses of Hertford. The Hertfords were fabulously rich, mainly from extensive land holdings, and in the 18th and 19th centuries avid art collectors. They obviously had Trumpian home decorating tastes. Here are two of their many clocks, all of which need frequent ‘fine tuning’, it appears. I particularly liked two 18th c British paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds in their collection: Mrs Carnac and the hauntingly strange Strawberry Girl.

Celia Walks

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