When we pull off Oxford Road and pass through the visitor gate, we see the palace at the end of a long drive.  We are actually approaching the palace from the side.  This is not the really impressive entrance.  That approach is from the north, passing through parkland landscaped by the famous Capability Brown, skirting the Column of Victory, crossing the shimmering lake over the Grand Bridge, and entering directly into the Grand Court.  But our approach is impressive enough.  Rising above us is the East Gate, a monumental triumphal arch, shouldered on either side by

(Greenway, continued)
The house is a classic Georgian the color of clotted cream.  We go in through the back entrance, just as Agatha and her guests would have done.  Nobody ever used the front door, Gill tells us.  She shows us into the dining room, where we enjoy a scrumptious meal marred only the fact that I overfill my beer glass.  The head froths over the rim and onto Agatha Christie’s original dinning room table.

Bath
We are roused as we exit the M4 and drive down secondary roads toward Bath.  Nick explains that he is a Bath native and offers to give us a tour of the city before he drops us off at our hotel.  We are surprised at how hilly Bath is.  Nick explains that the city has grown up the steep sides of a valley cut by the River Avon.