A Fish Out of Water

Dear Friends,

I know it’s been awhile since I took my adventure “across the Pond” to England, but I’ve been a busy fish and am just now getting around to regaling you with tales of my journey (or is that tails? giggle.)


I began my English journey in the city of Brighton. This city is best known for its rocky shores and its Pier. And the movie Quadrophenia, if you’re a Who fan. Here I am on the beach. You can see the pier in the background.

It was here on the Pier while posing for the photo below that I was almost snatched away by a hungry seagull. Once he had figured out that I was not a real fish at all, I would have been dropped into the English Channel and floated off to France. Thank goodness I was not!

I spent a lot of time visiting the “big houses” of the Kent countryside. My first journey was to Sissinghurst, home of the writer Vita Sackville-West. This is a beautiful castle, of which only the main tower survives. It has taken many different forms over the hundreds of years that it has been standing and there is quite a good summary here.

It was here that I saw THE original Hogarth Press, the printing press that Virginia and Leonard Woolf had used to print some of their early books at Hogarth House in London. Virginia had given it to Vita as a present in 1930. This has special meaning to my travel companions because they are Hogarths and one of them has a self-publishing company called Hogarth House.

Anyway, we next went to Leeds Castle, which is situated on two islands on the River Len. There has been a castle there for 1000 years! It was refurbished by an American heiress, Lady Baille, and used by her family until 2003. You can find a short history here.

After a little mix-up in travel plans, we moved on to Tunbridge Wells, a delightful suburb about an hour outside of London. It is very populated with retired, wealthy lawyers. Each day, we began our journey with a quick trip to town. On the way, we would pick blackberries from the hedgerows along the side of the road. Delicious! (Even fish like blackberries, you know!)

We visited more manor houses while we were here. We started with Chartwell, home of Winston Churchill. It was quite a rainy day when we were there, and the power went out in the main house, but we were able to see the lovely gardens. They have a great vegetable garden and a fish pond. Plus, Mr. Churchill put a swimming pool in, and it looks just like a natural pond. I seriously considered go for a swim.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of driving on this trip. Luckily, we had a very experienced driver, who navigated the roads very well.
We finished up our trip at two houses, Knole and Ightham Mote. Knole was given to Henry VIII by the Archibishop of Canterbury in 1538. It was also the birthplace of Vita Sackville-West, who you know from Sissinghurst. (Everyone is inter-related around here.) It has a 1,000 acre deer park on property, and the deer wander freely through the carpark. I was a bit worried that I might be picked up by one of those “friendly” deer, but luckily my traveling companions kept me safe. Here I am goofing off with a lady of the house.

And, then it was off to Ightham Mote (which is pronounced Ig-am). It wasn’t really a castle, but a very old house dating back to the 1300s. It had lots of OLD parts, like a Tudor chapel, and lots of newer things from the 1950s when it was updated by an American, Mr. Charles Robinson. These Americans really like their English houses, don’t they?

So, that’s my trip to the lovely land of England. (Oh, and how could I forget my cuppa and fish and chips [just kidding!] sandwich?)

I hope you enjoyed my travel tales.

Mr. Fishy

With thanks to Jane for her help with the transcription of Mr. Fishy's tails.
To see where else she travelled in England, go here.