Today was meant to be a short day as we have to get back to Norfolk this evening for a couple of days, but we stayed east of Tring and the station is west of Princes Risborough, so it's going to be a pretty standard day. We have a good breakfast at Pendley Manor then head out past the peacocks and into the town of Tring to buy lunch in Tesco.
Tring is an attractive, historic town, but is blighted by traffic, currently exacerbated by roadworks. The A41, which we go under, acts as a bypass but the vehicles have only increased since its inception and now the town is busy again. We climb out of Tring with lovely views back over the town and up onto Hastoe Hill, past the Natural History Museum in Tring. This is an outpost of the South Kensington museum and was bequeathed to it by Walter Rothschild. Walter's family lived at Tring Park and Walter was obsessed with natural history from a young age. He did enter the family banking business as his family disapproved of his wildlife obsession. Despite this, his father built him a museum for his 21st birthday (!) and he proceeded to fill it with taxidermy and exotic specimens. He had to sell some of them as time went on, however, as he was being blackmailed by his erstwhile mistress. From the hill above the museum, we can see across to Leith Hill in Surrey, far away to the south and the next primary trig point in that direction. We descend a little and stop on a grassy knoll by a road for a break.
It's then up and down again, skirting the conurbation of Wendover (on a path called the Outer Aylesbury Ring) and crossing both the A413 and a railway line via a single bridge. Electricity pylons run through the same valley as it cuts through the Chilterns, as will HS2 whose construction is very much in evidence. The road we are following traverses through the HS2 works but some footpaths have been diverted, thankfully not any of the ones we are using.
We then continue upwards again onto Bacombe Hill, a stunning SSSI. There are orchids and wild thyme here, all frequented by beautiful peacock butterflies. The landscape and its associated wildlife mirror that of Leith Hill, its southern twin (I know this because I went on school biology field trips to Leith Hill and Box Hill over forty years ago).
Next it's down a bit and back up again following the Ridgeway onto Coombe Hill, which rises to nearly 260m and is our highest point so far. We don't visit the nearby primary trig point as Rich has already got that one. There is a large monument to those lost on the Boer War here, once destroyed by lightning and then rebuilt. Coombe Hill also has panoramic views of the chalk escarpment and we can see White Horse Hill in Oxfordshire and even into Wiltshire. We ourselves are now in Buckinghamshire.
We stop briefly and watch red kites and several kestrels up in the skies searching for food. We also get a good view of Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence.
Chequers was built in the 16th century by William Hawtrey. It passed through various of his descendants and was ultimately bought by American heiress Ruth Lee and her sister for Ruth's husband Arthur, following the death of the last of the ancestral line. Ruth and Arthur had no children so decided to leave Chequers to the country for the use of the Prime Minister, at that time, David Lloyd George. Arthur had noted that modern day politicians were no longer necessarily from the landed gentry and so had no country house to entertain important visitors or escape from the travails of their work. Just how much Lloyd George's own humble beginnings influenced this decision is not clear.
We descend into the grounds (just about) of Chequers and stop on a bench for lunch. There are plenty of walkers around following the profusion of paths available. The paths and their markers are somewhat confusing, but at least they are well maintained and therefore widely used.
It's downhill again and we rejoin the Icknield Way through woodland to the bypass south of the main centre of Princes Risborough. There is a final up and down, a further excursion onto the Ridgeway, and then we are on Station Road. We arrive at Princes Risborough station to catch the train to Marylebone and onwards to Norfolk and two non-walking days at last.
Total distance: 159 miles