• What to know if you go

TUCKER MCQUEEN/Staff (ENLARGE)

The battlements of 14th-century Warwick Castle afford a dreamy view of the placid Avon and the surrounding town and countryside.

TUCKER MCQUEEN/Staff (ENLARGE)

Begun in 1499, Bath Abbey, with its magnificent stained glass, is a late example of Gothic splendor in England. This is the tomb of James Montagu, bishop of Bath and Wells (1608-1616).

A Brit named Ashley Peach runs the quintessential English pub on the fringes of Bath. He likes having a name that sounds Southern. He reminded us that his place, the George, is in southwest England.

With dark timbered walls and ceilings and a rabbit warren of rooms, the restaurant is a popular local hangout. It was a monastery where monks brewed their own ale in the 13th century. Peach enlarged the building and updated the traditional pub fare. Besides meat pies, fish and chips and the English staple mushy peas, the menu offers lemon sole and walnut and Gorgonzola ravioli.

The George was a perfect beginning to our 1,000-mile road trip through Britain that took us from Gatwick, southwest to Bath, north to the Lake District, east to York and south to Cambridge.

Focusing on the countryside

My husband, Don, and I stopped at the George, an easy walk from our inn along a towpath on the Kennet and Avon Canal, on our first night. We'd resolved to experience the country in a way we hadn't before, by renting a car and taking interesting detours, staying away from chain lodging and encountering local characters. We would find rest in a Victorian home, a former vicarage and dairy and in a room over a busy pub.

Ashley Peach was the first of many Brits on a trip to remember.

In Bath, walking-tour guide Kenneth Jeffries told us where we could peek behind a rubbish bin to see a fragment of the Roman wall that once surrounded the city.

In Wales, we found the smallest house in Britain. We paid about 50 cents each to look around the 6-by-8-foot house whose last resident was said to have been a man over 6 feet tall. Our guide was a white-haired Mother Goose doppelganger in a red cape and frilled bonnet.

On a bus to Llandudno, a friendly teenager tried to teach us how to pronounce the city's name without spitting. He was unsuccessful.

Guided by a pheasant

While hunting for our night's lodging near Tattenhall, we made several wrong turns before stopping suddenly to avoid hitting a pheasant in the road. We looked down at a small sign on the roadside that pointed us to the Pheasant Inn. Did the owners have the bird on retainer?

After traffic backed up on a busy motorway near Chester, we thought we'd see an I-285 kind of accident ahead. Closer to blinking lights of several police cars, we saw bobbies in yellow rain slickers shooing sheep off the road.

In the Lake District, innkeeper and dog lover Ian Burt told us the characteristics of a proper dog. His standard schnauzer Sophie, a slacker who slept on the kitchen threshold waiting for breakfast scraps, did not earn the title. His aloof Russian wolfhound Alfie did.

We had tea and scones in an orchard in Grantchester, not far from Cambridge. We sat in canvas chairs and read a leaflet about dreamy-eyed poet Rupert Brooke. He wrote about the orchard before his death in 1914: "Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?"

We didn't have time to take in everything in 10 days. But we did sample some of the country's pastimes and savor its history and beautiful countryside.

Day 1 at Stonehenge

After a red-eye from Atlanta to Gatwick airport, we picked up a car and drove about 45 minutes to Stonehenge to marvel at the British Heritage site. The prehistoric monument is surrounded by busy highways, though improvements are being made to lessen the traffic's impact.

We arrived in Bath for a late lunch and settled in for two nights at an updated Victorian outside the city. Our room at St. Leonard's had a view of the Avon valley and was within walking distance of the city.

Day 2 in Bath

After breakfast, we walked into Bath through a lush public park, Sydney Gardens, and past a home where Jane Austen lived. Near the city center and 2,000-year-old Roman baths, we joined a free, two-hour walking tour. It's a great way to see the city's famous Georgian architecture.

Later we visited Bath Abbey, begun in 1499, and the Roman Baths. We listened to an audio tour as we wandered through rooms where bathers centuries ago relaxed in mineral water supplied by a hot spring. Roman coins, sculpture, mosaic tile, a bust of Minerva, goddess of the spring, and other ancient artifacts were beautifully preserved.

Tea at Sally Lunn's afterward is a must stop. Lunn was known for her baking in the 17th century, and her 300-year-old kitchen is preserved as a museum. Locals and tourists stop for tea and a Lunn bun in the oldest house in Bath, circa 1482. We sipped cream tea from china cups and savored the sweet bread slathered with clotted cream and jam.

Day 3 in the Cotswolds

Guidebooks call Castle Combe the prettiest village in England. The town, 15 miles northeast of Bath, is free of tourist trappings. We walked past stone cottages lining both sides of a narrow street and a 13th-century market, then crossed over a bridge to the church of St. Andrew. Inside, we saw the recumbent marble statue of a crusader, arms crossed, showing he died in battle, and an ancient faceless clock that once tolled the time to farmers in fields nearby.

During our day in the Cotswolds, an area of rolling farmland and quaint villages, we stopped in towns whose names intrigued us. We ate lunch in Burton on the Water and shopped for gifts in Stow-on-the-Wold. Both places had a fair amount of tourist trade, but we enjoyed the quieter roads through Lower and Upper Slaughter, where sheep seemed to outnumber people.

Day 4 in Stratford-upon-Avon

We stayed two nights at the White Swan Hotel, which dates to the mid-15th century. It's a five-minute walk to the William Shakespeare museum and family home and a 10-minute walk to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

We hadn't booked tickets in advance but found same-day tickets at the box office for $18 each to see "Hamlet" at the Swan Theatre, a replica of an Elizabethan playhouse. "Othello" was playing next door on the main stage.

In one day, you can easily walk through the park along the Avon, visit the Shakespeare museum and family home and see a play in the evening. We also toured the cottage of Anne Hathaway, his wife.

Day 5 at Warwick Castle

We drove about 40 minutes north to Warwick Castle. The Tussauds Group has turned the 14th-century castle and remains of a 10th-century fortification into a bustling tourist attraction. Re-enactors in period costumes roam the grounds and hold jousting contests outside the gates. Inside, wax figures populate scenes of castle life from medieval times to an 1898 weekend party. Adult admission is about $32.

After rubbing elbows with tourists, we drove north through the village of Tattenhall to the Pheasant Inn, about 10 miles south of Chester. The place wasn't easy to find, but worth the hunt.

Good food and a panoramic view of the Cheshire Plain make this out-of-the-way spot popular with folks from local towns and nearby Chester. A large sandstone building, formerly a barn, has been transformed into a cozy pub with wood-beamed ceilings and fireplaces. Twelve guest rooms, each with a bath, are above the pub and in a former stable next door. Don't book the room over the busy restaurant. (We did and found the noise below didn't translate into a restful night.) Do grab a table by the large picture window in time to watch the sunset.

Day 6 in northern Wales

We headed to Conwy, a walled city about an hour west of Chester. A guide at the tourist center suggested a walk on the top of the wall that surrounds the city. The free walk provided great views of the city and its castle, completed in 1287.

Our next stop was Llandudno, a Victorian seaside resort a few miles away. We were warned that the city would be clogged with folks taking part in an annual fair, so we hopped on a city bus in Conwy to avoid the traffic. We ate lunch at the Queen's Hotel, a British version of Atlanta's Colonnade, for a fish-and-three lunch for under $10 each.

Then we headed to the Lake District, 145 miles north.

We drove along Lake Windermere to Ambleside, where we stayed two nights in the former vicarage for St. Mary's Church, within walking distance of shops and restaurants. The Victorian home is now a comfortable, affordable inn with a heated pool and hot tub below the conservatory. Our room was small and plain, but a large lounge downstairs provided a nice place to unwind at the end of the day. Friendly hosts Helen and Ian Burt have decorated the place with an extensive collection of owl bric-a-brac. Helen says she has always liked owls, and the inn gives her plenty of room to display them.

Day 7 in the Lake District

We had one day to sample the Lake District. Two would have been better. This area of lakes and valleys surrounded by lofty mountain ridges is known for hiking and outdoor experiences.

The region is also known for writers like Beatrix Potter and poet William Wordsworth. We visited tiny Dove Cottage, where Wordsworth lived at the turn of the 19th century and wrote pastoral poems, inspired by his peaceful surroundings.

Our next lake was Derwent Water, a 30-minute drive through rolling farmland. It was raining and we holed up at a popular pub, the Dog and Gun, for tasty meat pies and ale. No guns, but we did see several dogs napping at their owners' feet. After lunch, we walked about five minutes from the pub to a short trail along the lake.

Later, in Ambleside, we had dinner at Sheila's Cottage and Tea Room. Two sisters run the cozy restaurant, on a narrow alley called the Slack. The fare was pricey, but fresh fish and vegetables and a tangy lemon tart for dessert made it an excellent choice.

Day 8

in the Yorkshire Dales

After leaving the Lake District, we drove south and east 110 miles through the Yorkshire Dales to York.

Not far from the exits for the villages of Giggleswick and Wigglesworth, we took a two-hour detour to visit the ruins of the 12th-century Bolton Priory in Bolton Abbey. We crossed through a gate cut out of a stone wall and meandered through the ruins, passing sheep grazing nearby on deep-green grass. We still made it to our lodging in York by late afternoon.

One of the rooms at the Dairy Guest House was a hayloft. Before 1978, the inn was a dairy where locals bought milk, ice cream and Yorkshire curd. We chose the bed-and-breakfast because it was a 20-minute walk to the heart of the walled city and next door to Melton's, one of the area's better restaurants.

Day 8 in York

Our first stop was the Castle Museum, a history museum, formerly a debtors' prison. What makes it unique is the replication of two 19th-century streets that take visitors in a 20-minute span through a day and night in Edwardian and Victorian England. We also visited York Minster, called the largest medieval Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. After lunch at the Punch Bowl, a pub named by Whig party members who frequented the place centuries ago, we peeked in shops on the Shambles. The historic area of narrow lanes is reminiscent of the Elizabethan era.

By late afternoon, we were on the road to visit Marietta friends living near Cambridge, about three hours south.

Day 9 in Saffron Walden

This medieval market village, 15 miles south of Cambridge, is off the tourist track. The town has a thriving business trade and unique shops, including an antique store that was Oliver Cromwell's headquarters in 1641.

For less than $5, we picked up two delicious meat pies at a bakery and picnicked in a town park. After lunch, we navigated what is billed as the largest turf maze in England. A square area no more than 40 feet by 40 feet is cut into the grass not far from the ruins of 12th-century Walden Castle. The brick-lined path that snakes back and forth is said to be a mile in length.

Day 10 in Cambridge

The colleges that make up Cambridge University are generally closed to the public, but events frequently are open, and often free. We got a glimpse of King's College by attending evensong service in the college chapel. We arrived early to get seats in the chancel next to the choir. The college's male choristers sang the evening liturgy a cappella. Pitch-perfect voices have echoed through the cathedral-sized sanctuary for more than 500 years.

We also visited the Fitzwilliam Museum, a treasure-trove of art from great masters to modern.

One of the highlights of the day was punting on the Cam, a 30-minute boat tour on the river that runs behind the university. We reclined on blankets in a shallow boat while students wearing straw boaters steered gondolier-style and talked about the school's history.

Fittingly, we spent our last night at another pub, the Axe & Compasses in the village of Arkesden. Like the George, it is a local hangout with great food and a long history. The thatch-roofed building dates to 1650, and the part of the restaurant where we ate was formerly a stable.

We were told the owners pay a woman to come every day to clean the bridle and tack that decorates the pub. They were indeed spit-shined.

Maybe on our next trip we will get a chance to meet her and learn how the restaurant got its name. We'd also like to try another meat pie at the George and chat with Ashley Peach again.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

Expect to pay about $600 round-trip airfare from Atlanta to Gatwick in the off-season, about twice that in summer.

Information

We put the trip together ourselves using these resources:

• Britain's official tourism agency: www.visitbritain.com.

• Maps and driving directions: United Kingdom at www.viamichelin.com. (An international driver's license is not required to drive in Britain.)

• St. Leonard's: www.smoothhound.co.uk/hotels/stleonar.html.

• Bath: www.welcometobath.co.uk.

• Stratford-upon-Avon: www.stratford-upon-avon.co.uk and www.shakespeare.org.uk.

• Warwick Castle: www.warwick-castle.co.uk.

• Pheasant Inn: www.thepheasantinn.co.uk.

• Lake District: www.lake-district.gov.uk.

• Old Vicarage Inn: www.oldvicarageambleside.co.uk.

• Dairy Guest House in York: www.dairyguesthouse.co.uk.