Read on Twitter
My native county facing the hour of need it does, I would urge all my followers who can to #VisitWiltshire, the most beautiful, historic & welcoming region of England. Every day I will tweet a reason to visit Wiltshire.
Today I give you the lane behind the house where I grew up. It is nothing special - just cows beneath trees in dappled light. But everywhere in Wiltshire there are places like this. Places that lift the soul, they are so beautiful. #VisitWiltshire
Broadchalke, my native village, famed for watercress: back in the 17th C, it was home to John Aubrey, the biographer & antiquarian who wrote about Wiltshire's marvels. He once described a ghost as disappearing "with a curious Perfume and most melodious Twang". #VisitWiltshire
Win Green, the highest point in Cranbourne Chase. Cecil Beaton lived in a house in its foothills, which was then bought by Madonna. The photos show the walk up to the summit, and me & my mother admiring the spectacular views. #VisitWiltshire
Ever since the spire of Lincoln Cathedral collapsed, @SalisburyCath has boasted Britain's tallest. It also holds the world's oldest working clock, the best preserved copy of Magna Carta, & the country's largest cathedral close. The Virgin herself chose the site. #VisitWiltshire
The reputed tomb of a boy-bishop in @SalisburyCath. "The tradition of the Choristers, & those that shew the Church, is that the Childe-Bishop being melancholy, the Children of the Choir did tickle him to make him merry but they did so over-doe it, that they tickled him to death."
An assemblage of standing stones much larger & more complex than Stonehenge, Avebury can feel all the more eerie for having a village actually inside it. I once made a corn circle here labelled in The Encyclopaedia Of Corn Circles “an obvious fake” #VisitWiltshire
Avebury is also the starting point for the #Ridgeway, a magical walk along what is possibly the oldest road in Britain, which takes in hill-forts, churches, riverside pubs & Chequers, & consistently feels like there may be 9 black riders hunting you on it. #VisitWiltshire
Just down the road from Avebury is Silbury Hill, Europe's largest artificial ancient mound. Built c. 2600 BC, it was reported by John Aubrey to be the tomb of King Zel, who had been buried there on a horse. No one knows why Silbury Hill was actually built. #VisitWiltshire
Wiltshire isn't just beautiful countryside, ancient monuments & sleepy villages. Fans of complicated road systems will thrill to Swindon's 'Magic Roundabout' – the only roundabout in the whole of Britain to have been the theme of a song by XTC #VisitWiltshire
At Highworth, 6 miles outside Swindon, the ghost of the local squire was notorious for roaming the streets with a rope round his neck. When exorcised, the ghost said he would only submit if he were allowed to be sealed up in a vat of cider. And so he was. #VisitWiltshire
The church of St Mary's in Purton boasts a most unusual feature: 2 towers, one with a spire. Tradition explains them as the result of a quarrel between the 2 sisters who, back in the 13th century, supposedly built the church, & couldn't agree on the design. #VisitWiltshire
Amesbury can claim to be Britain's oldest continuously inhabited site. The Mesolithic site of Blick Mead is at a further remove from the building of Stonehenge than we are from the building of Stonehenge. Legend attributes its name to Ambrosius Aurelianus. https://twitter.com/VisitAmesbury/status/1016946751280992258
The hot spring in Amesbury turns white rocks pink. Guinevere is supposed to have become abbess of the convent that was built beside it. In 1965, the Beatles stayed in Amesbury while filming on nearby Salisbury Plain. #VisitWiltshire
Just up the road from Amesbury is where the 'Tedworth Drummer', Britain's most notorious poltergeist, created havoc. "It would lift the Children up in their Beds, and follow them from one Room to another." It was also reported to "purr like a Cat." #VisitWiltshire
Malmesbury, home of the great abbey founded by St Aldhelm. Athelstan is buried there, & a monk named Elmer flew a glider off its tower. He got some 200 metres, then crashed. "He used to relate as the cause of his failure, his forgetting to give himself a tail." #VisitWiltshire
Just outside Malmesbury is Charlton Park, begun in the 1650s & the seat of the earls of Suffolk. It's been hosting WOMAD since 2007. This year features everything from Finnish acapella to Ethiopian jazz... http://womad.co.uk/ #VisitWiltshire
Longleat - originally an Augustinian priory - boasts one of the finest Elizabethan stately homes in England, a maze & the first safari park to be opened outside Africa. I visited it aged 6, & burst into tears on being confronted by a dalek in the Dr Who exhibition #VisitWiltshire
The Marquess of Bath has decorated Longleat with scenes from the Kama Sutra, keeps 'wifelets' in estate cottages, & is a Wessex nationalist. A previous Marquess came back as a ghost, but was prevented from groping his wife because she'd been wrapped in lamb's wool. (Don't ask.)
As well as @TheMerchantsHou, Marlborough also boasts what is reputed to be the grave of Merlin. It lies in the grounds of Marlborough School, the alma mater of the Duchess of Cambridge... #VisitWiltshire https://twitter.com/mark77knowles/status/1023272343634956288
Built by a local sheep farmer as a shelter for storing hay, it's affectionately known as the Hobbit House. #VisitWiltshire https://twitter.com/archpics/status/1024184145470214144
