Weekend drives in the countryside around Oxford

During my two years at Oxford I managed to travel a good deal in Britain and Europe. I propose to begin by describing some weekend drives I made in the neighbourhood of Oxford. As, of course, I did not have a driving licence, I arranged for my police escort to be my driver. Sometimes he and I went out on our own; on other occasions I took Oxford friends with me.

On many weekends I went into the Cotswolds which stretch from the north-west of Oxford to the neighbouring county of Gloucestershire. When I looked from a high point with a wide view of the countryside I could see the beautiful Cotswold villages – groups of the local honey-coloured stone houses clustered around church towers.

Burford on the western fringe of Oxfordshire, with its gently sloping High Street and attractive buildings on each side was beautiful, and I was attracted by the town of Bibury in Gloucestershire on the way from Burford to Cirencester. I was interested in the differing shades of the honey-coloured stone with which the houses in the various villages on the way were built, and Bourton-on-the-Water with its houses reflected in the river had a charm of its own.

Cirencester was a Roman town. Most towns whose names end in ‘cester’ or ‘chester’ trace their origin to Roman times. Chester in the north of England, Winchester and Dorchester in the south were said to have been Roman garrison towns. The roads which meet at Cirencester were mainly straight roads. It is well known that the Romans built straight roads in order to facilitate the transmission of information and the speedy movement of their troops. The sayings ‘all roads lead to Rome’ and ‘Rome is eternal’ are well known.When I looked at these straight roads and saw that these Roman roads were still being used today, was it a hasty conclusion to think that they had indeed preserved an eternal life? I had once visited Cirencester on a cold winter's day. After having a look at the town and while I was looking for the remains of the Roman theatre I came across a mound.