Always a pleasure to read a Folio Society edition, and Phineas Redux the fourth in the series of six Palliser or ‘Parliamentary’ novels is by common acclaim one of the best of Trollope’s extensive writings. He certainly appears at the top of his powers, whether in his descriptions of riding to hounds (one of his own favourite things) or his semi-satirical take-offs of some of the great issues of the day particularly the Disestablishment of the Church in Ireland and the Reform of the political system. He also appears a prophet before his time in his sub-plots involving the possible introduction of decimalisation and the positioning and powers of the monarch in a constitutional crisis. Having said all of this, Trollope as usual develops all these themes around the life and loves of his main character, and Romance plays an equal part to Politics. His characters are very strongly drawn and in a novel of some 700 pages we get to know them well! A large part of the second half of the book concerns the court case where Phineas is accused of attempted murder, and Trollope revels in his taking to pieces of the legal system as it existed. So, not only is Phineas Redux a page-turner, it is a detailed and extensive commentary on the constitutional, political and social life of Victoria England and in that equal to the efforts of Dickens. Only two more novels to go. Far more demanding of time and concentration than War and Peace!
Because we are in the middle of selling our home and hope to move to the North West, I have bought second-hand copies of two excellent books ‘The Treasures of Lancashire’ and ‘The Treasures of Cheshire’. These are very detailed portrayals of
the two counties in terms of the countryside and towns, which are described succinctly and well, and the treasures therein, with emphasis on the churches, public buildings and houses to be found. I must say that I took great pleasure in reading these minutely and I discovered so much new about areas I know well enough. Not only have the two books strengthened how much I am looking forward to moving, they have directed my attention to considering alternative locations for our new home. These books weren’t available new any more and I only paid between £3 and £4 each. A real bargain.
For some light relief, as both the Trollope and the guides were demanding of concentration, I have been re-reading ‘Engel’s England’. His book is not a gazetteer, he explains, “nor a guidebook, nor a compendium of England’s best anything”. It is, rather, he claims, a celebration of “the most beautiful and fascinating country on Earth”, though even the determinedly upbeat Engel cannot avoid an Anglo tone of loss and melancholy. “By way of subtext,” he notes in passing, “I visited all 41 (Anglican) cathedrals and lit a candle to my late son in each.” But that in no way gets in the way of his genuine desire to see what makes the different counties tick, and to find the quirky or humorous things that will both amuse us and inform at the same time. This he does in spades and very funny he is more often than not. He is warm, human, funny and cutting at times. The sort of man who would be interesting to talk to in the local pub, knows a lot, plenty to say, empathetic and probably very willing to stand you a pint or two. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip around England in his company (as I did the first time).
A last-minute decision to take advantage of the Locals offer (£25 each return) to visit the Scillies again on a day trip meant an early start. The alarm was set for 5.45am and that proved just right. In arriving at Penzance we joined the small queue to pick up our tickets – the staff were incredibly helpful and efficient………
and in no time at all we were wandering along the harbour to board the Scillonian. 
These are the mini containers which hold passengers’ luggage, but also anything and everything that the Scillies need that they don’t have or grow themselves.
Seeing Penzance like this early in the morning makes you wonder why you don’t get up early more often.
Anyhow we were soon settled in for the 2 hours 45 minutes journey with a coffee and lovely fresh warm pastry each and the Times crossword, sudoku, word wheel etc which are our daily attempt to activate our brains for the strenuous days of retirement.
The sea was placid, the day hot and sunny as we exited the harbour.
Everything secured nice and firmly….
It’s always interesting to see places from a different angle…here Mousehole.
And it’s a joy to arrive in the scattered isles of the Scillies……
before berthing in St Mary’s……where we hopped off rather sharpish to ensure we made the inter-island ferry to Tresco our destination for the day.
You see all kinds of craft, and nearing Tresco……
……….the incredible white-sanded beaches gleamed in the sun, and all of them were, as they often are apparently, practically deserted. Paradise!
On our walk to 
and everything was super-sized…
All this before we got to the Gardens….
Before visiting the Gardens themselves we had a light lunch in their cafe sitting in the beflowered courtyard soaking up the sun. After that we were ready. Now if you don’t like pictures of flowers, plants, settings like the Garden of Eden look away now…….
and there was wildlife too…here a magnificent 
The shapes against the blue sky were pretty special and the feeling you were in some tropical paradise, rather like the Eden project but all outside in real-life as it were, never left you.
And it wasn’t just plants and flowers that were special, there was a huge range of modern sculpture something I would normally take with a pinch of salt but here somehow all very appropriate…..
This particular sculpture of a balancing box lies below the Abbey house itself where 
even the well was turned into a piece of sculpture…..
The Shell House (1994), a pretty shell grotto designed and made by Lucy Dorrien-Smith, has a shell-themed tile floor, and individual initialled tiles commemorating members of the family can be seen amongst the shells on its internal walls. But the craftsmanship was incredible. The finest shell house I have seen, and I have seen a few.
Towards the end of our stroll around the gardens we happened upon a fruit and vegetable area which was patently not part of the main run of things. Our assumption was that this was maintained (in tip-top condition) for the Abbey owners themselves.
It also contained cutting beds, again probably for the owners vases.
We had the ferry to catch at 3.30pm to link up with the Scillonian, so we reluctantly left the gardens. On our way to 
the outside of the house itself….
and finally had beautiful vistas opening up of the sea……
I noted in the outskirts of the hamlet that they had even named a square after me (very nice of them)
and passing the beautiful cottages in their verdant setting we made our way….
……to the 
As part of our Christmas present from Katherine, we had a voucher for afternoon tea at the Fowey Hall Hotel. We had visited once before and came away extremely disgruntled with atrocious service. This time the service was impeccable.
The tea was lovely, the weather great, and the setting and views tremendous.
As you might expect we were sated and decided we had better work off some of the culinary inputs by steeply descending into Fowey.
Some people might regard Fowey as twee. But it is one of my all-time favourites.
The harbour and town were busy. Whilst enjoying the views, staring down into the waters we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw a group of the most enormous jellyfish at least three or four feet long…..
We were off for another week’s house-hunting in Cheshire, having narrowed our search down to Sandbach and district and, rather than belt up the Motorway, we decided to use the ‘old’ route up through the border country. What a terrific decision. So pleasant driving through the rural and idyllic counties of Monmouth, Hereford and Shropshire then into Cheshire. And always an impressive start to a journey to cross into Wales via either of the Severn bridges….
We broke the journey for lunch at 
Suitably refreshed, we took the opportunity to look round the church itself (another bonus to the church of having the cafe) and it was fascinating. Basically it is Fourteenth Century. 
There are some wonderful misericords….
breathtaking Minton tiles…
and a famous, indeed infamous, rude carving in the roof…..
….apparently the current vicar wanted to make some money out of this by publishing postcards etc but he was stopped by the PCC who ruled it out as too inappropriate! 
Our little tour of the church over, we wandered around the town itself to admire many wonderful buildings…..
.
…we noted how bucolic the city really was….not many city centres after all have offices for a cattle society….
we said hello to 
and marvelled at the exterior of one of our great cathedrals…..
Resuming, we eventually reached our destination – Holly Cottage near Holmes Chapel, and settled in to farmyard life! 
The cottage was everything you would want and we had our own little garden..
and the owner’s farmhouse was just typical of Black and White Cheshire…
After some serious hard work house-hunting the next two days, for F’s birthday on the 19th we went in the evening to 
The restaurant was full of character and we really enjoyed ourselves.
On a ‘day off’ we again used the train to go to Liverpool – somewhere I haven’t been for a long time. As soon as you come out of Lime Street station you are confronted with the most marvellous array of public buildings among them St George’s Hall, the Walker Art Gallery, various museums and the Central Library, all worthy of a capital city. Indeed we both had the feeling that we were in somewhere much akin to Barcelona or Lisbon. Who knew that Liverpool was as impressive as this? We were taken aback.
Opposite was the Empire Theatre where I once, with my first girlfriend, saw Ken Dodd perform. The show started at 7.30 pm, and by midnight Ken was informing us that the doors were locked and we wouldn’t get out until he had finished! The Empire has the largest two-tier auditorium in Britain and can seat 2,348 people.
A lovely park set off all the buildings around here. 
As we progressed through the city towards the sea the buildings remained impressive.
It’s always nice to see 
And the front of the city facing the sea was busy and stylish…..full of museums which unfortunately we had no time to see….
We walked from the pierhead towards 
The Albert Dock itself was lovely, a great conversion, full of people. The flats looked stylish but the shops and restaurants were leaning a wee bit towards tat and greasy food unfortunately. But that didn’t take away from the splendour of the buildings and setting.
We moved into town to seek somewhere to eat…
and because we couldn’t find my carefully researched rooftop cafe with a view, we ended up in the shopping centre and a rather conventional lunch at John Lewis’s….not to be sniffed at with a glass of wine. The shopping centre was great too…… very clean, modern and sleek and there was a nice ‘grassed’ area for lunch and watching buskers…all in all a memorable visit to a city that has recovered all its old vim and vigour and self-esteem. I almost like it better than the greatest city of them all (Manchester).
Another of our trips out was to 
Just as when last time we had visited Lymm Hall it was really notable how friendly, helpful and knowledgeable all the guides were. It makes a visit so much more rewarding. But then, as we all know, everybody is friendly in the north west! the entrance hall is rather splendid…..
and the spectacular painting ‘The Cheshire Hunt 1839’ almost dominating the hall shows three generations of the Egertons who owned Tatton.
The music and drawing room is the most ostentatious room in the house; Tatton’s collection of Gillow furniture is unrivalled. Wilbraham Egerton’s ownership (1777–1853) saw the commission of many pieces especially for the house. 
Views from many of the rooms were of the 50 acres of gardens and series of lakes for which Tatton is well-known. they descend all the way down to Knutsford town centre. Lewis William Wyatt and Joseph Paxton, architect of Crystal Palace, designed various elements. 
The Library is a perfectly symmetrical room, in keeping with the formality of the neo-classical style. It houses one of the largest and most important library collections owned by the National Trust with over 8,000 books in this room alone, many still in their original covers and in mint condition. We had a fascinating conversation with the guide in this room who is very knowledgeable about the books and gives one of their 10 minute talks on the library. We will be sure to go. 
No-one can resist a portrait of any of the Tudors…..
All in all time very well spent. We then were able to drive through the grounds past the lakes into Knutsford where we had another wander around this delightful town.
Parts of Knutsford seem very Italianate….you could almost be on the side of Lake Garda. They are nearly all the work of Richard Harding Watt (1842-1913) who was a local philanthropist, traveller and idealist with a passion for building, who made his fortune from glove making in Manchester. He worked with four professional architects to transform the townscape of Knutsford with a series of eccentric buildings.
Elizabeth Gaskell of course used Knutsford as Cranford and there is a suitable monument to her in the town……
We also strolled along the side of Knutsford’s own lake…how pleasant!
Our little garden waited for us in the sun at the end of the day…
One day we looked again at Tarporley a wonderful small village/town. nice to live here but a bit too expensive for us…..
Sunday lunch was at the Bells of Lower Peover. yet another fantastic Cheshire pub….there are many.
Whilst there we had a good look at St Oswalds and a little stroll around the lanes….
Driving on to 
Amazing how sentimental the Victorians were..there’s nothing like the Victorians!
The view from the back of the churchyard to where the vicar directed us was lovely…..the deepest and largest mere in Cheshire. We had a great 10 minutes admiring the scene.
Unusual to see a gravestone we would more expect to see where we live near the sea…..
A good week both for house-hunting and enjoying Cheshire. We decided to return home the ‘old’ way again. On our way a delightful village green…
and I couldn’t resist stopping to take a pic of the roadside verge. How much better it is when less cutting of verges takes place….
This time before exiting Cheshire we called in to one of the prettiest villages in Cheshire in the deep south of the county – 
In its centre and at its highest point stood the magnificent church of St Oswalds.
Very imposing gateways to the churchyard were set off by some imposing buildings…
Inside there are many treasures. This oak chest dates from the second half of the 13th century.
The roof is quite exceptional being a fine late C15 camber-beam affair with ornate bosses and angels (restored but none the worse for that) on the corbels. 
In the Brereton chapel the tomb is that of Sir Randal Brereton and his wife, and is dated 1522. The monument in the Cholmondeley chapel was erected in 1605 and represents Sir Hugh Cholmondeley and his second wife, Mary.
The usual little children and followers carved around the tomb itself are cute….
Lunch stop this time was in Church Stretton which I hadn’t visited since a sixth-form History trip in the sixties. Spreading over its hillside site it made a good last stop.
Enjoying Cornwall... 