Just as Mr Darcy cantered across his Pemberley estate and Catherine rode across the Yorkshire moors to Wuthering Heights, 21st-century riders can enjoy the romance of visiting historic houses, thanks to Charlotte Sainsbury-Plaice, Zara Colchester and their new company, Stately Rides.
Echoing the writer, professor and adventurer A. F. Tschiffely—‘to see England properly, I recommend viewing it from the saddle, for the smell and creaking of leather and the company of a horse give it an atmosphere imaginative people can today only find in old novels’ —the idea is to admire the beauty of the English countryside and that of its enviable historic houses from the back of a horse.
* For more news stories like this every week subscribe and save
Rides, mainly two days long, go from one rural estate to the next in the Cotswolds, such as Notgrove near Cheltenham and Banksc Fee Farm, near Stow-onthe- Wold, staying in houses not usually available to the public, ‘with lunches, candlelit dinners and Champagne along the way’.
For more information visit www.statelyrides.co.uk
To comment on this article, use the comment box below, or email us at clonews@ipcmedia.com. Read more about the countryside.
-
Claws for thought: The world leading crustacean conservation charity that is saving our lobstersThe National Lobster Hatchery in Cornwall is fighting for the species' survival. But it could do with some help.
-
West Wycombe Park: The neo-classical mansion of the man smeared as a convenor of orgies, satanic rites, and a leading light of the notorious Hellfire ClubTim Richardson offers a surprising perspective on West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, that's one of the most celebrated landscapes of late-18th-century England. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
