Knutsford

 Extract from The New Travel Book -
North of Watford Gap - John Brown

The entrance to Tatton Park is a mere 150 yds from the top of King Street.
Passing under the gateway and entrance kiosk – free for walkers, £5.00 for cars - I decided this boy was walking. Once within the park you are met by the longest driveway imaginable – if in days gone by, they had sent a footman out to brush the drive in November, he wouldn't have returned until Christmas, it is seriously long..

 The sun was bright the clouds fluffy and a warm wind was blowing in from, I think, the south. The vista was one of uninterrupted parkland as far as the eye could see, the whole tranquil scene completed by lazy deer and a stag with the most enormous antlers, totally disproportionate to his sleek body-line. For a fleeting moment it reminded me of a Landseer painting – something like 'The Stag at Bay', only in this painting, the deep heather strewn glen had been replaced by verdant pasture and ancient oak trees.

 For the best part of forty minutes I trudged along the the never-ending driveway, as happy people in their Range Rovers and the like breezed past, Their children giving that 'why's he walking all this way mummy?' look as they watched from the rear window.
'Because I'm saving five ponds, that's why – not that we writers are careful with money or anything, but it does seem to go with the territory. Maybe I'll try being an M.P. next time round, they're not stuck for a fiver or two.