September 2011 Diary

Tongham Tasters Evening
Our next get-together is on Thursday 15th September in Poyle Road Tongham. Theme of the evening is top wines to buy in the UK at £10 or under. As usual we will be sampling 6 wines with some accompanying food to cleanse the palate or enhance the tasting experience. We’ll also share tips on how to buy good wine for under £10. Anyone is welcome to join us for this evening, although we are limited to a maximum of 12 persons. Cost to be shared amongst those attending is a maximum of £10 each. Let John know if you would like to attend; either ring him on 07717 876743 or email tonghamtaster@gmail.com. We welcome new faces to our events.

Local Events in Surrey
Our local vineyard on the Hog’s Back – Greyfriars – is holding an open day on Saturday 10th September. A few of us intend to pop up there so maybe we’ll see you there. Details are on the Greyfriars Vineyard website.

I note that on Tuesday 20th September the Surrey Hills Society are having a tasting in Albury of ten wines from six different Surrey Vineyards. Details are on their website. Book early if you wish to go as there are limited places. Unfortunately, I can’t make this one, should be interesting.

Surrey Farm and Food Week is happening between September 17th and September 24th. We’ll probably attend the farm walk on the Hampton Estate on Saturday 24th September as we are big fans of their produce (beef, pheasants, rabbits, honey etc). Look for details of all that is going on, on the Surrey Farm and Food Week website.

Events Further Afield
For those of you keen to refill your wine rack, cupboard or cellar, the Foire Aux Vins in France are rapidly approaching. This is the time of the year when the French supermarkets have some wine bargains and also a much larger selection of wine than normal. From their website, I believe that Auchan in Calais and Boulogne are having their Foire aux Vins between Tuesday 13th to Monday 26th September (not open on Sundays). Again some of our group are planning trips, so we might bump trolleys en France! I have some postings to help you choose you wine – click on this page link.

Local Award-Winning Wines



Walking through Denbies Vineyard

I have visited a number of wineries and vineyards but very few in the UK and surprisingly not one of the large ones right on my doorstep in Surrey, England. Denbies in Dorking, Surrey can lay claim to being the largest vineyard in the UK at 265 acres and is also one of the largest privately owned vineyards in Europe. Its wines have won many awards over the years and currently they are proud to have won the top prize for a Rosé at the 2011 International Wine Challenge beating 300 other Rosé wines from around the World. Like many southern England vineyards they are also famous for their increasingly good sparkling wines that they claim are as good as the best in the World.

Vistors Centre and Train

Denbies is not just an award winning winery and vineyard; it is also a tourist attraction in its own right. We visited them yesterday and were impressed by their slick organisation and the investment they had made to be a top tourist destination. First we took their vineyard train tour priced at £5.50 per person and had a 45 minute tour of the vineyard; alternatively, as there are 7 miles of public footpaths through the vineyard including the North Downs Way, you could do this for free on foot, but then you miss out on the commentary. Why not do both and spend an enjoyable day-out? There are lots of lovely photo opportunities for taking pictures of the grapes on the vines at this time of year and I can imagine this must be a beautiful photography location in autumn as well.

Second, we purchased one of their indoor tours which make this a good tourist destination on a rainy day, although we were blessed with fine weather. The indoor tour includes an incredible 360° circular cinema virtual vineyard tour, a quick whizz around the winery on their indoor train, and of course a cellar tasting of three of their wines. We took the Sparkling wine option and thus our indoor tour was priced at £12 per person.

Beautiful View from the Vineyard Train

Third, you get a chance to visit their lovely restaurant and shop in the visitor centre. You can also taste wines in their shop and of course buy them and there is usually a 10% discount for those who have been on the tour. Denbies sell about 65% of their wines through their shop in the visitors centre and also sell on line. Some supermarkets such as Waitriose also stock their wines. Currently, Denbies does not export their wines.

Fourthly, there is a farm shop selling organic and local produce and also a small garden centre type shop where you can even buy you own vine – fancy growing Chardonnay in your own back garden? There is a large purpose built car park and an area to picnic.

Sparkling

Our overall opinion on the tourist experience is that it is very good, well worth a visit. They are kid friendly and make a fuss of them on the vineyard tour. The train rides make it good for people with walking disabilities – it helped me on this visit as I am sporting an injury to my knees at present. Tasting was good but slightly confusing as they have three different experiences all going on at the same time (standard, sparkling and food and wine).

Our overall opinion on the wines we tasted was again very good, the sparkling wines were lovely. I appreciated the fact that they were only about 12% abv. First we tasted the Whitedowns which is made with 100% Seyval Blanc – nice, fruity and light. Second we tasted the Pinot Noir Rosé Cuvée 2007 which was pleasant, very dry and had hints of strawberry. Finally, we tasted the 2006 Greenfields which is made from the typical champagne grapes and had an excellent length and nice citrussy flavour – it was good enough for us to buy some in the shop (good value on the day we went, as this week there is 25% off sparkling wines)

Whites

They grow a surprisingly large variety of grape varieties in the vineyard including well known French varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. However, German varieties such as Muller Thurgau, Schonburger and Dornfelder make up much of the vineyard. Their award winning rosé is made with Rondo grapes which is a red fleshed varietal grown in Northern Europe including Denmark and is popular with wine growers due to its disease resistance, early ripening and the colour it gives to the wine. It is becoming increasingly grown in the UK and makes good rosé and sometimes even gold award winning rosé as with Denbies who grew only a small amount and thus have sold out very quickly (although is still available in their shop as part of a mixed case).

The terroir is ideal for wine growing; the sub-soil being chalk, the aspect being mainly south facing slopes and the location being in a closed valley that protects the vines from the wind. It is thus, perhaps, surprising that the first vines were only planted in 1986, although the Romans had planted vineyards not very far from here much earlier.

Award Winner

Their range of wines is rather large; they do the full gamut from red, white and rosé to sparkling. Prices start from just under £8 for some of their whites and go up to over £20 for their top sparkling wines. They sell via mail order so visit their excellent and informative website at www.denbies.co.uk. Best of all pay them a visit on the northbound A24 between Dorking and Mickleham- they are open 7 days a week all year long apart from Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years Day. I think this is an excellent local family business with good conservationist principles that is worth supporting.

As a footnote, we have tasted the award winning Chalk Ridge 2010 Rosé and it is superb, easily the best rosé we have tasted all summer - lets hope they plant more of the Rondo grape in future.

Vines alongside the A24 in Surrey

Inside the Winery

Grapes in August

Vineyard Map

View of the Vineyard from the North Downs Way

Literary Connections, a Tongham walk through local literary history

After a hard life eating and drinking, we all need a good ramble to walk off those calories. Tongham is ideally situated to take advantage of the Surrey Hills, Blackwater Valley path, Basingstoke Canal towpath and the old Tongham railway line. This is number one in a series of blogs to give you some different ideas for walks around Tongham.

Tongham Village Hall, where we regularly hold wine tastings, was built for those engaging in physical activities or for social, moral, cultural or literary purposes. This walk manages to combine the first and last of these objectives. It will surprise many residents of Tongham that there is such a wealth of literary connections just south of the village and in this age of the car it is so easy to miss out on so many of the local beauty spots and points of interest around us.

The walk I took and describe below is about 7 miles long and may take about 3 hours. The highlights are Waverley Abbey, Crooksbury Hill and Moor Park. There is a possible picnic spot at Waverley Abbey or on Crooksbury Hill. Refreshments might be taken at the Barley Mow Pub in Sands. I found this route suitable for walking a dog, mainly on lead but there are a few points where you could let the dog have a run.

Tongham Village Hall

1. Start out from Tongham Village Hall which is located at No 75 The Street in Tongham, and head uphill along The Street in a southerly direction towards the Hog’s Back. At the top of the hill continue onto the Hog’s Back going down into Runfold.

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) mentions both Tongham and the Hog’s Back in Chapter 18 when describing the Savage and his abandoned Air-Lighthouse (used to guide helicopters) on Puttenham Common. Huxley was born in Godalming and was a keen cyclist around the Surrey Hills.

Freeman Wills Croft wrote the detective novel The Hog’s Back Mystery (1933) set in the area just south of the Hog’s Back (Seale, Hampton, Sands, Puttenham, Binscombe etc). It is a good read that stands the test of time if you like Whodunits. Croft lived in Blackheath near Guildford.

Charles Ludwig Dodgson (Lewis Carroll of Alice in Wonderland fame) would visit his family in Guilford and often walked across the Hog’s Back and into Farnham. He is buried in Mount Cemetery near Guildford.

Mike Hawthorn's two children's books

Musician-singer-songwriter Richard Thompson wrote the song MGB-GT which contains a line in which he claims to have driven at 110mph along the old Hog’s Back.

As we pass into Runfold we join the Pilgrim’s Way which went from Winchester (St Swithin) to Canterbury (Thomas a Becket). Amongst the first to trace the route was Hilaire Belloc (The Old Road 1904). A prolific writer, he was perhaps best known for his Cautionary Tales. This part of the Pilgrim’s Way is not part of the route for Chaucer’s pilgrims who just travelled from London to Canterbury.

2. Continue down the Hog’s Back and then follow it to the right into Guildford Road and then along here until you reach Crooksbury Road just before Barfield School.

Footpath near Barfield School

Barfield School has had houses named after Mike Hawthorn, Jane Austen and J.K.Rowling.  Mike Hawthorn attended the school and is best known as Britain’s first motor racing World Champion but he also wrote four books including two children’s fiction books. Jane Austen certainly passed by here from Chawton and up onto the Hog’s Back in 1813; she wrote about the fine views.

3. Turn left into Crooksbury Road but shortly turn right up a footpath along the perimeter of the school. Keep right along the footpaths eventually turning sharp right at some steps and then follow the North Downs Way through the woods and onto Compton Way. Turn right into Compton Way and follow it as it turns left downhill. Shortly, turn left into the driveway of Moor Park House.

Moor Park House

Moor Park House was the home of Jonathan Swift who wrote Gulliver’s Travels. In his time at Moor Park he wrote two books. He had a female acquaintance called Stella, hence the name of the cottage at the far end of this section of the walk.

Another writer who passed by here was William Cobbett best known for his 1830 book Rural Rides where he describes the early nineteenth century countryside and gives free of his opinions about many things, hence his nickname Peter Porcupine.

Footpath after Moor Park House

Stella's Cottage

4. Follow the footpath past Moor Park House and all the way along past pill boxes, the nature reserve and Mother Ludlam’s Cave to Stella’s Cottage. Turn right into Camp Road and then straight on into Waverley Lane. Follow the road around to the right and then turn immediately left into the grounds of Waverley Abbey. Go into Waverley Abbey and spend some time there.

At the entrance it states that Waverley Abbey was the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott’s novel Waverley. This is somewhat misleading as the novel is not about the local area or an abbey at all. It probably inspired him to come up with the name for the main character Edward Waverley. The monks themselves wrote the Annals of Waverley which describes their life and famous visits such as that of King John in 1208.

Old Bridge by Waverley Abbey

Part of the Waverley Abbey Ruins

5. Retrace your steps back to the road and follow the B3001 Waverley Lane around to the right towards Godalming. Be careful here as the pavement does not continue very far and you will need to walk in the road. After a couple of hundred yards turn left up a footpath. Follow this footpath past a number of houses until you reach Crooksbury Road. Cross the road and follow a footpath to the left.

Arthur Conan-Doyle lived in Hindhead and set the Sherlock Holmes’ story The Solitary Cyclist (1903) around Crooksbury Hill.

6. Keep going uphill and slightly to the left until you reach the memorial trig point at the top of Crooksbury Hill. Admire the absolutely stunning views and then turn around and head on down the hill and eventually towards the right until you get to Smuggler’s Way. Turn left into Smuggler’s Way and continue down to the Barley Mow Pub.

The Barley Mow pub in Sands

Was The Barley Mow the pub where Sherlock Holmes had a punch-up in The Solitary Cyclist? I think The Donkey is more likely but who knows?

7. Turn right out of the pub into Sands Road but soon turn left into Sand’s Recreation Ground. Cross the Rec into the far right corner and exit by the side of the golf course into Binton Lane. As you exit look to the left at Jan Smut’s memorial stone which is hidden in the undergrowth.

Smuts Memorial Stone

Jan Smuts was a soldier and Prime Minister of South Africa. He wrote the preamble to the United Nations Charter and an unpublished work on Walt Whitman. The memorial dates from 1958 and was put there by old local soldiers who admired him as an enemy and as an ally. His only connection with the area is that he stayed a short time at the home of his private secretary’s parents in Sands.

8. Go along Binton Lane until you reach the cross roads with Seale Lane and Thundery Hill. Take care along this stretch as again there is no pavement beside the road.

Binton Lane

Thundery Hill is named after the Norse god Thor and reminds us of the pre-Christian era legends. Local village Thursley is also named after him, as is the day of the week – Thursday.

9. Go up Thundery Hill and back up to the Hog’s Back and then retrace your steps back to the Village Hall.

This blog post, map and directions are for guidance purposes only. Please use an Ordnance Survey map to plan out you own route using this blog for ideas on possible points of interest. The suggested route does not necessarily indicate a right of way. Wear suitable footwear and high visibility clothing and take great care when crossing roads or walking on the side of roads without pavements. No responsibility is taken by the writer for anyone undertaking these walks.

Welsh Rabbit or Welsh Rarebit?

A Welsh rabbit or rarebit is one of the great English dishes. It even made its way into the great French chef Auguste Escoffier’s Cookbook, but then it does have 2,973 recipes in it! In Northern France you will still often see “un Welsh” on the menu. By the way, Auguste Escoffier uses the name Welsh Rabbit rather than Welsh Rarebit in my edition.

In Mrs Beeton’s original 1859 Book of Household Management, which has only about 1,350 recipes in it, she lists both a Scotch rare-bit and a Welsh rare-bit, which are so similar as to be almost identical. It would appear that in those times it was sometimes served as a kind of fondue which you dipped your bread in whilst at other times it was just a simple cheese on toast.

Welsh Rabbit and a nice glass of English beer - what better way tgo finish a meal?

 According to Wikipedia, the name Welsh Rarebit dates back to 1725 but it also states that the origin is unknown. Many think that it is originally an English dish and the name is intended as a slur on the poor Welsh who couldn’t afford meat and thus just ate cheese on toast unless they had hunted a rabbit. Similarly the other popular savoury dish Scotch Woodcock was named as a slur on the Scots as they also couldn’t afford meat and thus had to have scrambled eggs on toast with anchovies unless they had hunted some game. It appears that the name should really be rabbit and that the word rarebit is just a corruption of the original word. I have seen reference to an English Rabbit that includes red wine, presumably because the English don’t make much red wine! The Welsh claim the dish, Welsh Rare-bit, as their own and there is some evidence for this as they were known as great cheese eaters and one of the earliest British mentions of cooking cheese is in a Welsh cookbook.

A Buck rarebit is a variant on the Welsh rabbit but with a lightly poached egg on top. Other good variations include adding bacon, ham or anchovies on top of or underneath the cheese. I have not tried a variation on Irish Rabbit that is topped with onions, vinegar and pickles, or a very old recipe that has beef and horseradish underneath the cheese sauce.

Originally, Welsh Rabbit would have been served at the end of a meal as a savoury dish for the men after the dessert, perhaps with a glass of port. Nowadays, it would be a snack or light lunch or supper.

Recipes vary quite a lot but most include toast, cheese, beer or ale, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and mustard. Some include butter, flour or milk and I have even seen double cream, onions, sage and eggs in the recipes. Many today would add Worcestershire sauce and the Irish would tend to use Guinness or other stout rather than the beer or ale.

As for the cheese, I would tend to stick to Cheddar (West Country Farmhouse of course) but you might also try Lancashire or Cheshire or if in Wales why not Caerphilly.

If you don’t have any other recipe, why not try this simple one:

Welsh Rabbit Recipe for 2 or 4 depending on their appetite

4 slices of good white bread
200g of grated cheddar cheese
A generous splash of about 50 ml of any beer or ale (a dark winter ale works particularly well)
1 heaped teaspoon of ready made English mustard
A good pinch of cayenne pepper or chilli powder
Salt and black pepper to taste

Put all of the ingredients except the bread into a saucepan, mix and heat gently whilst stirring until all of the cheese has melted and melded together with the other ingredients. Don't let it bubble too much. Meanwhile lightly toast the bread. Spread the cheese mixture evenly over the toast and grill until bubbling and beginning to brown. Serve quickly.

As for a wine pairing, if not drinking a port, you should probably go for a white wine or, perhaps more traditional in England, Cider. Perhaps, best of all, drink the rest of the bottle of ale you made the sauce with.  Remember the old saying - "beer after wine and you'll feel fine"; thus beer with the cheese course is always an option.

The Perfect Wine and Chocolate Pairing?

Finito Rosso and Double Chocolate Cake

The other day Jane decided to make a Double Chocolate Cake for us which is a chocolate cake with a chocolate and sour cream ganache icing. I had a look in my wine cupboard for a suitable pairing and came across a strange bottle of wine that we had not tasted before and whose route to my wine cupboard is unknown; I think it must have been a present as I can’t find it on sale at any of my usual wine sources. Many thanks to the kind soul who bought this for us us and introduced us to this lovely wine.

The wine was a Sirromet Seven Scenes 2003 Finito Rosso from Queensland in Australia. The grape varietal is Chambourcin and the wine has been fortified in the Portuguese style to 19.5% abv. It thus resembles a light Port with great freshness and with a nice balance between sweetness and acidity. The bottle says that the recommended food pairing is Pheasant Paté with rye bread and olives but trust me when I say that the best pairing is chocolate cake. I even think it should be forbidden to sell this wine to anyone who isn’t as certified chocoholic!

It is so difficult to find wines that are a true match for chocolate but I note in Wikipedia that it states that the rare chambourcin grape is known to be a good match. Fortified wines are also often good matches to chocolate. Thus fortify the chambourcin grape and you have the perfect match!

Chocoholics should look out for this wine. Let us hope that some of this becomes more available in the UK soon as I couldn’t find a source on the web. If anyone knows where we can get some, please leave a comment on this blog.

Charters and Caldicott on the Orient-Express

British Pullman Carriage Lucille

Having been invited to review a day out on the British Pullman run by the Venice Simplon Orient-Express, I decided it would be a good idea to invite two old friends, Charters and Caldicott. Who better but these two intrepid train travellers from the Golden Age of Train Travel and stars of Night Train to Munich and The Lady Vanishes to judge what the British Pullman is like today. Numbers in brackets refer to footnotes about the three Charters and Caldicott films.

Did you know that they serve 22,000 botles of champagne and 150 kg of caviar a year!

Charters and Caldicott are sitting at their desks in the Foreign Office looking bored.
Charters – Just had a phone call from Tongham Tasters, fancy another train trip Caldicott?
Caldicott – Where to old boy?
Charters – Chichester.
Caldicott – Makes a change from the Balkans, I suppose. At least by staying in Blighty we should be able to keep up with the latest cricket scores.
Charters – and it is run by the Orient-Express group so we should get nothing but the best.

Charters and Caldicott looking forward to getting down to Chichester and joining the British Pullman

Not steam hauled today

Charters and Caldicott set off from Waterloo on the train (not The Train which they are scheduled to pick up at Chichester) and arrive for their scheduled change of trains at Havant.  Charters goes up to the news stand.
Charters – A copy of Punch please. (1)
Newsvendor – Sorry sir, they haven’t published that since 2002.
Charters – Don’t suppose you have a copy of Mein Kampf?
Newsvendor – No sir.
Charters – Anything you might give to a honeymoon couple?
Caldicott – Charters, I don’t think they have those sorts of books here!

They serve 32,500 litres of freshly made soup each year!

Unbeknownst to our couple of archetypal pre-war Englishmen, their connecting train leaves whilst they amuse themselves at the news stand. Eventually they spot their mistake and find the next train has been cancelled and thus hastily jump in a taxi to Chichester Station. In the taxi Caldicott scolds Charters.
Caldicott – I can’t believe we’ve missed another connection because of you Charters! First we miss our connection because you are standing to attention during the Hungarian Rhapsody, which it has always been my contention is not their National Anthem, and now this! (2)
Charters – Calm down old boy, we been through worse than this and still got through. We’ll be in Chichester in no time.

The passengers eat over 5,040 kgs of British cheese every year!

Nothing at all wrong with this seat!

Finally Caldicott and Charters arrive at Chichester Station.
Cut to a few frames of Alfred Hitchcock wearing a black coat and smoking a cigarette on the platform (3). Station Master goes up to Hitchcock and tells him that it is a No Smoking zone.
Charters and Caldicott get on the train and sit down in the wrong seats.
Charters – What about that bloke who was playing third man yesterday? (4)
Caldicott – Quite appalling, we could have both done a better job of it!

Most of the carriages date from the twenties and thirties but have been lovingly restored.

Steward (played by Irene Handl) comes up to them. (5)
Steward - You can’t sit there, these seats are reserved for Mr Crabbin.
Charters – I suppose you are going to put us in the maid’s cabin…(6)
Caldicott – …and we definitely want one each this time.
Steward – No sir, your seats are just over here.

They serve as a reminder of great trains such as the Brighton Belle, the Golden Arrow, the Night Ferry, the Bournemouth Belle, the Queen of Scots and Ocean Liner services to Southampton.

Charters and Caldicott sit down in the right seats which happen to be in a nice compartment on the carriage called Lucille. Both admire the elegant Greek urn marquetry in the carriage. Couple sit down next to Charters and Caldicott. Charters leans over to ask them a question

Champagne and Canapes

Charters – I don’t suppose you know the current state of play at the Oval? (7)
Gent – The oval what?
Charters – The oval what? I’m talking cricket, the England versus India test match!
Gent – No idea, sorry.
Charters – (as an aside to Caldicott) Doesn’t even know what the Oval is.
Charming Train Manager comes along and shows Charters the cricket score on his mobile phone.
Charters – Now that’s what I call service.

Every guest is a VIP

Champagne and canapés are served; a rather nice glass of Laurent Perrier Brut (scored 15/20) and some caviar and smoked salmon toasts and dates with cream cheese.
Caldicott – Very good show they put on here Charters. It is much better than I remember before the war. I seem to remember going up to Edinburgh on the Queen of Scots in the very same carriage.

A steward comes along and asks them what wine they would like with their lunch.

Would Sir care for a bottle of the 2001?

Charters – Any chance I could go down and see your wine cellar?
Steward – We are on board a train sir so we don’t have a cellar, just a small section at the rear of the train where we keep the wine. I’d be most happy to show it to you if you like.
Charters goes down to the end of the train and inspects the wine cellar and eventually plumps for the very nice house red – 2008 Cote du Rhone Villages, Les Coteaux, Boutinot (at least a 14 out of 20 score).

Wild Trout Terrine

First course arrives which is a very good Wild River Trout and Green Peppercorn Terrine with a watercress mayonnaise. Our intrepid duo are impressed that it is all served, silver service, by four stewards who bring the salmon, salad garnish, sauce and brown bread in turn. Norbert the Assistant Train Manager arrives and answers their many questions about the train. They are impressed that the carriages are used 3 to 4 times a week and that they cater for over 200 people on each journey. All of the food is prepared off-train but cooked fresh on the train.

 Is this Lucille?

After the Champagne and first glass of wine, Caldicott gets up to relieve himself.
Charters – Don’t go through the door marked Bosphorus! (8)
Caldicott – Very droll Charters.
After a while Caldicott comes back.
Caldicott – There’s a naked woman on the floor in the lavatory!
Charters – Oh God, this happens to us every time we travel, trouble seems to follow us everywhere.
Caldicott – Only joking, Charters, just a rather attractive mosaic on the floor.

Pretty vistas pass by them on the train and the soup course arrives which is Roasted Vine Tomato and Mizuna Soup served with a Vodka Crème Fraiche. Again our duo are impressed. More pretty English countryside whooshes by and they pass briefly through Salisbury.

Well cooked main course

The Westbury White Horse

The main course is served, again by a procession of polite and efficient stewards. It is a Fricassée of Free Range Chicken Stuffed with a Mushroom Duxelle and accompanied by a Broad Bean and Morel Mushroom Sauce, Parsley Potatoes and Sugar Snap peas. Everything perfectly cooked, a rich sauce and still some crunchiness in the sugar snaps.

Just before Westbury they get a glimpse of the Westbury White Horse which was cut into the hill in 1778. Then they arrive at the “destination” of Westbury in Wiltshire where they spend just over twenty minutes. Actually the real destination is the train itself. There is just time to stretch the old legs and visit all of the other carriages and have a peek in the kitchens; each of the Pullman carriages is quite different, each amazing in its own way but with different marquetry and character.

A steam locmotive we passed outside of Westbury

Lovely English Cheeses

The train leaves for the return journey. We pass an interesting steam engine on the exit out of Westbury. Great British Cheeseboard and Homemade Chutney arrives (a lovely selection of Somerset Brie, St Giles, Red Leicester, Mature Cheddar and Stilton).
Charters – They have served the cheese course before the dessert, Charters, not very English!
Caldicott - Well at least I got some cheese today unlike in the Hotel in Bandrika!  (9)  Look on the bright side, at least we got biscuits rather than that ghastly continental habit of serving bread with cheese.

Trifle

The dessert is a Roasted Fig and English Plum Trifle, creamy but still light enough for a five-course lunch. Later, the coffee course arrives with some nice chocolates. Charters gets some extra sachets of sugar to help him plot out a contentious moment in an ancient England Australia test match.
Charters – Everyone has got their own sugar cubes today Caldicott, shouldn’t get interrupted like last time. (10)
Caldicott – They are very well organised this Orient-Express crew. Perhaps they should run the MCC.

Just like a game of cricket!

Time passes by pleasantly aboard the train and eventually they arrive back on schedule at Chichester Station. Charters and Caldicott leave the train.
Charters – So what did you think of the trip Caldicott?
Caldicott – It’s been a bit like a game of cricket really.
Charters – What do you mean?
Caldicott – Well we’ve been sitting here eating and drinking all day, watching what’s been going on, nothing much has happened and it’s been really great! What did you think?
Charters - Absolutely spot on old boy, a great escape from the twenty-first century, like the Golden Age only better.

Have your own day of escapism and book a day trip on a British Pullman with the Orient Express. Great for people who love trains, nostalgia, impeccable service or dressing up. We took the August 19th 2011 Lunch from Chichester on the British Pullman which was priced at £240 per person.
Thanks to Orient-Express for supplying our trip and Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder for creating the characters used in this blog and the films The Lady Vanishes, Night Train to Munich and Crooks Tour. Thanks also to Jeff, Norbert and their staff for their attentive service and attention throughout the day.

We were able to follow our journey through the lovely English countryside on the map provided.

The Wine Cellar!

Footnotes for those who are not Caldicott and Charters fanatics; these are perhaps ten of the most famous moments from Charters and Caldicott films:

(1) In the film Night Train to Munich, Charters tries to buy a copy of Punch whilst abroad but ends up buying a copy of Mein Kampf. He explains to Caldicott that he understands that they give a copy to bridal couples over here. Caldicott responds – Why, I don’t think it’s that sort of book old man.

(2) They miss a connection because of the Hungarian Rhapsody incident in The Lady Vanishes.  We really did miss our connection at Havant, too!
 

Beautiful Marquetry in Lucille

(3) Alfred Hitchcock, who directed the 1938 film The Lady Vanishes, appeared in a cameo role in most of his films. In The Lady Vanishes it is right at the end on Victoria Station platform, wearing a black coat and smoking a cigarette.

(4) The characters Caldicott and Charters were originally going to be in the film The Third Man, but were replaced by the Wilfrid Hyde-White character “Mr Crabbins”. The third man is also a fielding position on the boundary in the game of cricket.

(5) Irene Handl appears (uncredited) as the station master in the film Night Train to Munich and admonishes C&C “You can’t sit here”.

(6) At the beginning of the film The Lady Vanishes, the hotel manager of the fully booked hotel puts the two men into the maid’s room. It results in the exchange; Caldicott – They might at least have given us one each. Charters – What? Caldicott – The room at least.

(7) C&C are always fanatical about trying to find out the score in the Test match, normally without any success as they are surprised to find out that not everyone is as obsessed with Cricket as they are. There actually was a test match on the day of our trip and we were able to follow the score on our Blackberry.

What's more important than a test match ?

(8) In Crooks Tour, Caldicott tries to go to the bathroom by going through a door marked Bathroom but nearly ends up in the Bosphorus. He exclaims “It shouldn’t say Bathroom it should say Bosphorus”.

(9) In the hotel at the beginning of the film The Lady Vanishes, C&;C try to order steaks but are told that the food has run out. Miss Froy helps them by offering them some of her cheese, which then Charters selfishly devours.

(10) In the film Night Train to Munich, C&C get out the sugar cubes and plot out a contentious moment in an England Australia test match. Someone from the adjoining table asks for the sugar and Caldicott and Charters look at each other as though putting sugar in coffee is not as important as describing a test match. They gather the cubes together and hand them over.

The Sous-Chef Jon Freeman in his on-board kitchen

We didn''t know much about cricket but we enjoyed our day with Charters and Caldicott!

Beautiful views of the English Countryside whizzed by us all day long

River scenes too!

I hope you enjoyed our post card from our British Pullman day out