iting Power.
For those prepared to go the extra mile,
or rather more, Charlbury offers one of the
nation's outstanding alehouses in the Rose
and Crown. They are serious about their
beer and music here, with no food menu,
but those who need to lay a foundation
need only pop over the road to a flourishing
gastropub, The Bull.
More than any other staging post on the
British racing circuit, however, Cheltenham
is best left to your own instincts. The town
itself abounds in life, for those who can
keep up with the pace; and the surrounding
country, in almost every direction, unfolds
in such unbroken nostalgia that you will
very soon discover your own favoured lair.
The very racetrack, after all, is a great arena
nestled between limestone hill and green
valley. By day as by night, then, the week
unfolds in cherished nooks of a landscape
that preserves the best of the past while
nourishing a grateful sense that it is good
to be alive, here and now. By the same to-
ken, even your first visit will somehow feel
as though it consolidates a great tradition
of pilgrimage. And it may well prompt you
to start one of your own.
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