South Downs

We've packed in a whole host of experiences on our first tourist day in Dorset today. We started at St Nicholas' Church in Moreton. During the war the windows of the church were blown out when a German bomber dropped its payload as it returned from a bombing trip. Whistler the artist replaced the stained glass windows with plain glass etched with the most beautiful designs including a Christmas tree and butterflies. It's amazing because we've never been in a church where the outside 'comes into' the inside' and the building was filled with light. Moreton is also where Lawrence of Arabia is buried and I could well see him riding his motorbike on these narrow lanes.
Then we moved on to the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum which is tiny and is built into a row of cottages which are still allocated to agricultural workers who have worked for the union, what a great idea. We headed north next to Cerne Abbas and a walk up to the very rude Cerne Giant on the hillside above the village, then stopped off in Dorchester for lunch. After a very tasty chicken and leek pie in the Loft, we drove out to Maiden Castle, a huge Bronze Age hill fort for a couple of hours. Tony buzzed off one way and I walked round the ramparts to catch a good blipping spot. A woman walked towards me then veered off the track then changed her mind and came back down the path. Turns out she thought the tripod I was carrying was a gun! Anyway we had a very pleasant talk about viewpoints to visit and she answered my question about Far from the Madding Crowd (the movie!) I had decided that the seductive sabre scene with Julie Christie and Terence Stamp must have been filmed at Maiden Castle but apparently it was filmed a bit further west at Egerdon so we might have to visit there.
We finished our day with a drive up to the Hardy monument (where my blip is taken from) to discover that it's not Thomas Hardy's monument but 'Kiss me Hardy's monument'! Hah! I do think the view is straight out of FFtMC or Tess though!