Our fourth day began wih an early walk around Burpham. We had woken very early again, as expected, so a good walk before breakfast was a good use of time. There was a pretty good view of Arundel Castle in the distance over the fields, which was very atmospheric and picturesque.
We then had a really special full English breakfast, done to perfection, in the conservatory of the B&B. By and by we made our way off, but not before having a good chat with the owner, who told us we just missed some of the worst spring weather in England in years, just the week before. We had had lovely weather the day before and this day was really nice too.
So we went to Arundel Castle, which is of course one of the premier castles in England, possibly the most impressive. We started in the oldest sections, taking a look at the original Norman motte and bailey section, which is still intact, on to the later medieval parts, which included apartments built for the Empress Matilda in the 12th Century, and then finally to later additions, which included rooms actually used by the owners over the last couple of hundred years. There was still a lot of stuff relating to the visit by Queen Victoria. It was really a spectacular place, with some fantastic art including a very impressive Gainsborough among many others. Wonderful portraits.
We then set off for a pretty long drive to Titchfield Abbey, which was originally occupied for several hundred years by canons of the Premonstratensian Order, until the dissolution. It was then turned into a stately fortified manor by Thomas Wriothesley, the Tudor courtier. It was eventually turned into a ‘romantic ruin’ in the 18th century, as it now remains. We got there after lunch and had a bit of a poke around. There were some floor tiles discovered only recently which are a great example of medieval tile work, with most of the designs still quite clear. We hung around a bit and then headed off to Bournemouth.
We went straight to our hotel, The Royal Bath, a slightly faded Victorian pile next to the beach, and after a very circuitous trek through the labyrinthine corridors, found our room to have an excellent view down the coast and over the jetty. It was a little too chilly to spend time on the balcony, looking out over the views, which looked like the white cliffs of Dover! Later we went down and checked out the jetty, with all its old amusement things on it.
We were interested in getting some fish and chips, and though we smelt some walking
down to the promenade, we just couldn’t find the shop. We hunted high and low, looking
everywhere, but it remained elusive until we had almost given up, when we spotted
it, Harry Ramsdens’s Fish and Chips on Undercliff Drive. They tasted all the better
for the hunt, and we ate them on the edge of the beach, watching the cute black-
