Traveling around England, Scotland, and Wales with my mom and great aunt by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
The British said “River Thames” and not “Thames River” I noticed as my mother and great-aunt purchased tickets for a boat and bus tour out of London when I was on a trip with them as an elementary student.
We took a taxi to Maidenhead, where we boarded the tour boat. We stopped first at Stokes Poges and visited a church from Anglo-Saxon times called Saint Gilles that was more than 1,000 years old. My great-aunt and I smelled the antique roses with many petals, whose perfume seemed all that much stronger in the misty air.
Back on the boat, we passed an English village, which looked mysterious due to the foggy mist. This village called Bray on Thames harbors Michelin four-starred restaurants, but I was enchanted with Bray, because it looked like the drawings in my fairy tale books.
Finally, we arrived at Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle was built around 1078 by William the Conqueror as a fortress high on a chalk cliff over the Thames. As a child, my lasting impression of the place was of the Queen’s Gardens. After admiring the flowers, we set out for lunch at the Castle Hotel in Windsor.
After lunch, we took the bus to Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215 to guarantee the rights and property of barons; American colonists knew of this document and used it as a precedent for the American Constitution.
My maiden name is Ruth Pennington, and three Penningtons signed the Magna Carta. I was pretty happy to learn this later in life when I thought about running for president one day.
From Runnymede we took the bus to Hampton Court. The gardens there are fantastic as well, but under no condition was I allowed to go into the maze made up of towering Yew trees.
Earlier in the week, while my mother and great-aunt were watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace from the Victoria Monument, I walked across the street and into Saint James Park. I started counting swans, because the Queen kept track of them.
When I came back out of the park, the English policemen were on the scene and the whole tour group was rather agitated. I just laughed at all the commotion and got back on the tour bus for the rest of the London city tour. I had become a "lost child."
So, my time at Hampton Court was limited to photos in the garden in my double-breasted, blue coat with brass buttons. My hair was in pony tails, because I had succeeded in taking down the bun my mother had sent me out into the world with earlier in the day.
I wanted to see a castle a day, but I was quickly realizing that the gardens were the true treasures of the British Isles.
The journal that my great-aunt and mother kept for me of this trip made me realize that it was my great-aunt, who made me love gardens so well.
Her handwritten notes about how much she loved English roses are the best souvenir I have of the wonderful trip I took to the British Isles many decades ago.
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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