The question where to go came next, and, compared with this, all the other preparations had been ******.Here they were, with a caravan, and a horse, and a driver, and a dog, and maps, and a mapmeasurer (do you know what they're called?--they're called wealemafnas), and tents, and--most of all--permission to be entirely alone; and it was not yet decided where they were going.
Of course, as you may suppose, each of the party knew where he or she wanted to go, but that was merely a private matter; no general decision had been come to.
Mr.Crawley, who may be said to have lived for golf, suggested Ashdown Forest, and then, he said, he could look them up from time to time if they made a permanent camp there.But who wants to be looked up by a tutor when one is on a caravan holiday?
Miss Bingham was in favour of an itinerary (as she called it) that embraced two or three cathedral cities.
Mr.Lenox said: "Go to Sussex, and camp under the downs at night and explore them by day."Mr.Scott, on the other hand, said: "Go to Berkshire and see the White Horse that Tom Hughes scoured and wrote about." And he promised to lend them the book to convert them to this project.
Mrs.Avory declined to express any opinion."It's your caravan," she said, "and I would much rather you decided everything for yourselves." (What a delightful mother!)Janet wanted to go to the New Forest, because she had never been there, and now was a chance, and because for many years "The Children of the New Forest" had been her favourite story.
Robert wanted to go to Salisbury Plain and see the sun rise at Stonehenge, and cast an eye over the military operations there.
Jack Rotheram wanted to go to Hambledon, in Hampshire, to see the cradle of cricket, as it is called--the old ground on Broad Half-penny Down where they used to play cricket in tall hats, as described in John Nyren's book, which someone had given him.
Mary Rotheram wanted to go to Bredon Hill in Worcestershire, because she had always wanted to ever since she had learned a song which began:
"In summertime on Bredon The bells they sound so clear;Round both the shires they ring them In steeples far and near, A happy noise to hear.
"Here of a Sunday morning My love and I would lie, And see the coloured counties, And hear the larks so high About us in the sky."That line about the coloured counties had always fascinated her: she had longed also to see them, lying beneath her, all spread out.The coloured counties! She talked so enthusiastically and prettily about it that she quite won over Robert, who decided that Bredon would be quite as interesting as Salisbury Plain, and would give him practice, too, in estimating square miles; so that there were two for Bredon Hill, as against one for all the other places.
Gregory, however, was not for Bredon.He wanted to see the flying-ground at Sheppey, which is in a totally different direction, and perhaps induce someone with an aeroplane to give him a lift.
Horace Campbell sided with Gregory, while Hester voted continually and feelingly for Stratford-on-Avon.To see Stratford-on-Avon--that was her idea: to walk through the same streets as her beloved Shakespeare, to see the place where his house had stood, to row on his river, to stand by his tomb!
When the time came to discuss the journey seriously, it was Hester who won.
Stratford-on-Avon was decided on, with an extension to Bredon Hill as the farthest point away, returning by way of Cheltenham and Cirencester to Faringdon (for the White Horse), and then taking train for home, and leaving Kink and Moses to do the remaining seventy miles alone.
The distance from Bredon to Faringdon through Cheltenham, Cirencester, and Fairford, was roughly forty-five miles, or five days of nine miles each.
Starting at Oxford, as was proposed, they would be three or four days in getting to Stratford, and two days there; three days more, at the most, in getting to Bredon, This would make eleven days altogether, which would make, with rests on the two Sundays, and one whole day at the White Horse, the full fortnight.
This, then, is what was at last decided: that Kink should get the caravan to Oxford and be all ready for the children to join him on the Wednesday morning.They should go down to Oxford on the day before and be looked after by Mr.Lenox's young brother, who was at Oriel.
They should leave Oxford in the caravan on the next morning on their way to Stratford-on-Avon.
