Prices:
£360 twin share / £375 Single occupancy / Child (12 and under sharing room with adult) £235

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TENTATIVE ITINERARY

NIGHTSTOP

Day One - Wednesday

Sir Alfred Munnings is fittingly our first day’s guide. Munnings was famed for his equestrian paintings of local East Anglian life. As the region is dotted with stud farms, his choice of subject was not surprising but his rural life paintings are often considered his best.  After touring though the countryside en rouet from London, we’ll visit his home for 40 years, Castle House. This interesting mix of Tudor and Georgian styles with well-laid out gardens is worth a visit in its own right. Another house adds our second highlight of the day - Kentwell House.  This 500 year-old property is going to raise a few eyebrows with its range of unexpected features. There are painted wall and celings, a brick Maze, a topiary, and most intriguingly Baron Munchausen's Galleon! This wondrous vessel was designed by Terry Gillian for the film 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'. In addition to our two main visits of the day and scenic touring, we’ll also be seeing Colchester, the once Roman capital of England.

Day Two - Thursday

Step forward St Thomas Gainsborough, today’s featured artist. Gainsborough, who lived from 1723 to 1788, is considered one of our greats and his works are hanging in national galleries worldwide.  Not only will we visit inspirational landscapes but we’ll spend time at his own home  in the pretty village of Sudbury. We’ve two other simply breathtaking villages on our day’s picture book excursion - Lavenham and Long Melford. Both appear to be in a time warp. It is unsurprising that the former has been used as a film location on many, many occasions as it is England's Finest Medieval Town. Long Melford has been ‘in on the act’, too. It was the setting for the popular BBC TV show ‘Lovejoy’.

Day Three - Friday

Suffolk is known as Constable Country and is the subject of today’s fine touring with ‘virtual’ guide John Constable (1776-1837 ). The landscape of the Stour valley, a quintessentially English rural landscape, gave Constable the familiar scenes of The Haywain, The Cornfield and Flatford Mill. To this day much of this quintessentially English rural landscape countryside would easily be recognised by Constable, and at Flatford the sites of six of his major paintings can be located with precision. The tower of Dedham Church appears in a large number of Constable’s paintings. We’ll be visiting these various properties associated with this wonderful artist, including the thatched 16th century Bridge Cottage, in the heart of Dedham Vale, and Willy Lott’s cottage.  ‘Timeless’ is a word much abused but on this occasion we’d argue if used to describe our day rises above a cliché.

We return to London for early evening.

London touring suggestion: there can be few finer cities in which to discover great art, and its inspiration. We’d recommend the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, the Tate (especially for works by Turner with London as the subject), the Courtauld Gallery (Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces) in the Strand and the lesser-known Wallace Collection in Manchester Square and Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln Inn Fields (for the works of Hogarth).

© As we publish full tour descriptions, you may find others offering our unique itineraries.  But, just as you find when others sing the songs of Paul McCartney, they're often not quite as good as when sung by the original composer!