It's nearly 8:00PM by the time we arrive back in Catlowdy. After a quick shower, which finally wakes me up, I join Robin and Dana in the lounge upstairs for a meal of pasta and fresh toasted bread topped with thick slices of cheddar cheese.
Rain patters intermittently on the skylight above us as we enjoy our dinner and we all look at each other skeptically. It seems our luck has run out. The weather forecast promises widespread rain tomorrow – tomorrow, when we head north for a week in Scotland. We spend a quiet evening repacking and writing in our journals.
I wander outside after full dark to take a last look at the lovely land surrounding Bessiestown. Snapshot memories of the past week spent in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumbria flash through my mind: majestic cathedrals and haunting ruins, rugged fells and rolling hills, misty mornings that brightened into glorious sunny days, lush gardens and lawns, sparkling streams and windswept coastlines, ancient carvings and a very special stone wall.
My heart is full of England as I attempt to say good-bye before moving on. Impossible. It can't be done. I can only say "good-bye for now" as I look north into Scotland.
All is still but for the sound of raindrops on the paved courtyard and the umbrella that I hold over my head. No crows calling, no lambs bleating; even they have the sense to go in out of the rain. I shake my head at myself and go back inside where I add a wool tartan blanket to my bed, snuggle down beneath it and close my eyes.
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire, immediately north of which were the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts.
It is a common misconception that Hadrian's Wall marks the boundary between England and Scotland. In fact Hadrian's Wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border.
Read more about Hadrian's Wall at Wikipedia.