Grantchester, ah Grantchester!

So, yesterday I planned to take the kids to Grantchester.

It`s pretty much the kind of place you always want to go to. The tiny hamlet is surrounded by green fields and a wandering river and flowers as far as you can see. During our Cambridge days, we often walked the two or so miles there to have tea (or coffee, in my case) with scones and clotted cream at The Orchard. From the tea house`s website:

The Orchard - a corner of England where time stands still as the outside world rushes by. Relax and enjoy the genteel setting where more famous people have taken tea than anywhere else in the world.

...The Orchard, first planted in 1868, became a Tea Garden purely by chance. A group of Cambridge students asked Mrs Stevenson of Orchard House if she would serve them tea beneath the blossoming fruit trees rather than, as was usual, on the front lawn of the House. They were unaware that, on that spring morning in 1897, they had started a great Cambridge tradition.


The students enjoyed their rural tea, and word spread around the colleges. ...The Stevensons’ advertising card also proudly announced that the Orchard was not connected to any Public House. With few exceptions, very little has changed in the Orchard since then.

The poet Rupert Brooke used to rent a room there, and his friends (including Virginia Woolf) would come out for a bit of calm after their hectic life in Cambridge. Brooke is famous for the World War I poem “The Soldier” written months before his death which includes the line “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England”. He is less famous but locally beloved for his poem “The Old Vicarage, Grantchester”, written in May 1912, which includes the line “But Grantchester! ah, Grantchester! There’s peace and holy quiet there...”

So with all of this history and all of this affection, I packed our bags to catch a train with the kids to Cambridge. Our friend Jason, who coached the women`s 8-person boat I rowed with during our year in Cambridge, picked us up at the station and took us to his house, which is at the edge of Cambridge just where the walk to Grantchester begins.

We had a great lunch at his house and then set off. I had told the kids all about Grantchester and The Orchard -- even explaining a bit about the history of the place but stopping myself as I started to talk too much about World War I (and I am pretty sure if you asked them today, they`d have no idea who Rupert Brooke was, or Virginia Woolf -- but you can`t blame a former English major for trying).

The walk was as lovely as ever. We passed cows and punters (people pushing flat-bottomed boats along the River Cam) and cyclists and runners. We passed children and grandparents and even discussed the kissing gates (a way to keep the cows contained that could land you with a kiss if you passed through it the right way). The girls legs got pricked with stinging nettles as they romped through the fields, and Jason proved that he is in fact British, as he was able to quickly find the plant that provides the antidote to the sting (John and I are amazed at how much British men and women know about plants... Jason just added more proof to this broad generalization about all Brits!).

It was beautiful. But... it was àlso too long and too hot for two little girls. Despite stopping less than a half mile from our destination for water and emergency snacks, we had to turn back.

I don`t think the kids know what they missed, which is good. And maybe my sentimental memories of Grantchester are best left in my mind, as memories. Or maybe we`ll get back there next week. Who knows. But if you ever find yourself in Cambridge, it`s worth the time to meander along the Grantchester Grind to The Orchard. And if you do, be sure to stop and listen. You might just hear the echos of decades of laughter and deep conversations from poets and students and writers and friends. It`s definitely worth the trip -- especially if you aren`t almost-five-years-old!