Scenic Saturday - Berkshire

Number 12 in the series.

Pronounced "Barkshear", this county lies between Wiltshire and Greater London. The River Thames flows from west to east across Berkshire and at one time the Thames Valley was supposed to be England's equivalent to California's Silicon Valley. It may still be for all I know. In the west are the Berkshire Downs with numerous racing stables in an area around the village of Lambourn. Appropriately enough, one of the country's best-known race courses - Ascot - is also in Berkshire, albeit in the eastern half of the county.

The main urban centre is the conurbation of Reading (pronounced "Redding"), which is a town I am happy to avoid. Slough is another town to be dodged. This was made famous (infamous?) by John Betjeman: ‘Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!/It isn't fit for humans now,/There isn't grass to graze a cow./Swarm over, Death!'

Not far from Slough is another famous town - Eton, home of probably the most famous boys' boarding school in the world. Eton stands just across the Thames from Windsor, site of the Queen's favourite castle (or so we are told).

Berkshire always seems to me a strange county: some attractive countryside and pleasant, small towns in the west, ghastly urban sprawl in the east.

The picture has to be Windsor Castle. I was once invited to a reception there. While I was standing talking in a small group, the Duke of Edinburgh entered the room through a door just beside us and tripped over the carpet. He looked at us and asked, ‘Do you know how old this carpet is? It's 150 years old, hand-made in an Indian prison.'

Next day a national Sunday paper rang me. ‘Were you at the reception yesterday?' I confirmed that I had been.

‘What did the Duke of Edinburgh say to you?' I told them he had asked if I knew how old the carpet was. They only printed it in their next issue!

The picture shows St George's Hall in Windsor Castle. The original hall was destroyed by fire in 1992 but has since been rebuilt to look exactly as before. The ceiling is decorated with the coats of arms of past and present members of the Order of the Garter.