More about my 1999 visit to Newstead Abbey, the home of Lord Byron...
On April 17, 1999,
I was in London in the second week of my Mary-Shelley adventures in England, Wales,
France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy (not actually in that order, of
course), and I had planned an early morning train ride to Newstead, where I
hoped to tour the Abbey, former home of Lord Byron. But it was a Saturday, and
I discovered, to my dismay, that the home did not open to the public until
noon. I could not stay that long. (Miles to go before I slept. I was going to
leave for the continent the next day.) But I also learned that I could walk the
grounds and take all the (exterior) photographs I wanted to.
The little train
that runs from Nottingham to Newstead—only about a dozen miles—was called the
“Robin Hood Line,” a name that delighted me because I’d loved Robin Hood
stories my whole boyhood. I read books (Howard Pyle!), saw the films, loved the
TV series with Richard Greene (The
Adventures of Robin Hood, CBS, 1955–1960)—and even into my junior high
years I had run around the woods near our home in Hiram, Ohio, imagining I was
R. Hood on a mission to rescue Maid Marian (who would reward me with … what? I
wasn’t all that sure in those days) or in flight from the Sheriff of
Nottingham. And now I was in
Nottingham, though I saw no Sheriff. Or Robin Hood, for that matter. I kind of—no,
I really wanted to.
Off the train in
Newstead, I saw a sign that said “Newstead Abbey, 4 miles.” There was nothing at
the station but a small place to get on and off the train (not a true station)
and a weathered hotel. No sign of any cabs or buses. So … I could either walk four miles each way. Or be a
wimp and not see Newstead Abbey.
So off I went on a
brisk morning walk.
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| Newstead (near train stop) |
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| hotel near Newstead train stop |
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