Harwich

Arrive Heathrow or Stansted where arrangements can be made to meet and take you to a country house hotel or to one of two archetypal coaching inns, one of which is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots. Overnight here (2 nights).

Morning visit to Althorp, the treasure filled ancestral home to the Spencer family and burial place of Diana, Princess of Wales. Then to Sulgrave where in addition to a pub lunch at the creeper-clad stone built Star Inn, you will be able to visit Sulgrave Manor, the delightful 16th century home of George Washington’s ancestors.

Depart Northampton for Cambridge and a visit to the American Cemetery and Memorial at Madingley. After checking in, one of the best ways of seeing the University Colleges is from the hop-on, hop-off City Sightseeing open top bus. Overnight Cambridge.

Subject to their opening hours, on the way to meet your ship in Harwich, we might be able to arrange a visit to Otley Hall, birthplace of Matthew Gosnold, and where he reputedly planned his New World voyages in the Great Hall. This itinerary can be reversed for a post cruise extension.

Arrive in Northampton after a visit to Sulgrave Manor, the delightful 16th century home of George Washington’s ancestors and where a new garden is being developed by the Herb Society who are now based here.

Discover the brilliance of architect, artist and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh with a special tour of 78 Derngate, Northampton, now beautifully restored to its original 1917 appearance. En route for Canons Ashby, a pub lunch at the thatched Windmill Inn. This afternoon, a tour of the brooding, romantic Canons Ashby, the Elizabethan house where Spenser wrote part of the Faerie Queene. The historical framework of the garden has been painstakingly recreated over the past decade while inside, the Elizabethan wall paintings and outstanding Jacobean plasterwork are of particular interest.

This morning’s special tour will be of Kirby Hall where the pre war idea of a Baroque formal garden can now be seen. For lunch today, we recommend the Old White Hart at Lyddington. This afternoon, an hour or two at Rockingham Castle. Built by William the Conquerer it was a royal residence for 450 years. Since then it has belonged to the Watson family who live there today.

Continuation of your UK tour, airport transfers or independent extensions. If interior design is of interest, plan a special tour of Palladian Kelmarsh decorated by Nancy Lancaster in the English country house style.

Arrive late afternoon and overnight in the Northampton area perhaps with a visit to either Sulgrave Manor or Rockingham Castle.

Two wonderful gardens top the bill today, firstly at Cottesbrooke Hall, an architecturally magnificent Queen Anne house and winner of the 2000 HHA Christie’s Garden of the Year award. With a pub lunch at the nearby Red Lion in East Haddon, walk it off as you stroll around the traditional English garden laid out on different levels surrounding 17th century Coton Manor.

Special visit to Holdenby House where the original Elizabethan garden was enhanced by the late Rosemary Verrey in 1980. If we get the timing right, you’ll be amazed by the flying display at their Falconry Centre. Lunch today should be at the pretty red brick Victorian Brampton Hall Inn at Chapel Brampton. This afternoon, a tour of the remarkable garden at Kelmarsh Hall, made by Nancy Lancaster. Again subject to timing, a tour of the house, the epitome of the English country look, can be arranged.

If the creative genius of architect, artist and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh is of interest, finish your visit with a special tour of 78 Derngate, a typical 19th century terraced house which was his last major commission, designed in 1916-1917 and now painstakingly restored to its original appearance and decorative schemes.