First on the agenda today was the Castle Howard. This was a private estate built early in the 1700’s by the Earl of Carlisle. This is one of the 10-most important private estates in all of England. It was also one of the first of the major estates to be opened to the public in 1952. When I commented on the steady drizzle, one of the castle guides responded, “There is no extra charge for our British natural moisturizer.” Peter emphasized that the entire estate is man-made; nothing is in its original natural state.

We then visited the ruins at Rievaulx, beginning with “lunch with the locals” at Rievaulx Village Hall–village population of about 25, but with four babies. Our lunch was served in what was originally an army hut from WW II, where we had sandwiches, a custard and absolutely delicious tea cakes.

After this very nice lunch we walked down to the entrance to the ruins of the abbey. This site, out in the middle of nowhere, has to be the biggest surprise of our trip so far. The ruins are simply awesome! The earlier ruins in the Norman architecture were constructed by monks, and the later huge structure was built by masons. During Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey was destroyed by Henry’s men removing the roof. It is difficult to understand how people could do such terrible destruction, but I guess we have present-day examples of similar acts.

Returning to the hotel, we visited the North York National Park Information Center and strolled out to Sutton Bank, elevation about 1000 feet, for what is considered by many “The finest view in England”. It is indeed a nice view, but on our visit the mist obscured the distance vistas and muted the colors. Some of us wondered if this view was really finer than that in the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales.