Our England and Scotland Adventure: Day Two (18 August)

Grahame and Jo took us for a bit of a ramble today, turning a misty, rainy day into a lovely afternoon of villages, delicious treats, and (of course) picturesque scenery, including Sudbury Hall

and the stone walls and livestock of which we never get bored.

Even when we got caught in a bit of a traffic jam, there was a curious puppy watching from his window to keep us amused.
Our first destination for the day was Hartington, a quaint village of stone houses with a pond at its centre.


Grahame headed straight for Hartington's Old Cheese Shop
to stock up on a few cheeses, including their award-winning Hartington Stilton, and then we headed across the street to have a pub lunch at a friendly spot that offered food and warmth to the large numbers of walkers that had been out in the surrounding countryside.
My lunch was fantastic: a whole rainbow trout with veggies and beet-infused couscous.
Jo and Grahame had other ideas for dessert, so we left Hartington after lunch and soon arrived in Bakewell, which we learned is famous for its “Bakewell Pudding.” Although several places in town claim to serve the original Bakewell Pudding (also known as Bakewell Tart), our guides steered us right to the most authentic place in the village, appropriately called The Original Bakewell Pudding Shop.
The menu was filled with tempting desserts, but we figured we should try the shop’s signature dessert, so we ordered a Bakewell Tart for four:
An amazingly addictive concoction, Bakewell Tart was first made around 1860 when a cook apparently misunderstood a strawberry-tart recipe, layering the egg mixture on top of the tart instead of mixing it into the pastry. I can’t really describe the wonderful gooeyness of a slice of Bakewell Tart covered in hot custard, but let’s just say that we were very pleased to have been guided to this dessert. We had a quick browse through the downstairs shop before we left, admiring the different sizes of tart that were available to take home (I’m not exactly sure how we resisted buying another tart, but somehow we did).
On our way back to Burton, we drove past seventeenth-century Chatsworth House, where we enjoyed views of the house
and the surrounding “wildlife”

before continuing home to gaze out at the rain from the warmth of the cosy living room, with hot drinks and conversation to complete another relaxing day in the country.