In 2003 October, in an article in “be on Saturday” in the Asahi News Paper, Knebworth House was introduced. On the top page, there was a photo of the house taken at dusk. The caption said, “Knebworht House in the north suburb. The house still has a Bulwer Lytton’s taste.”
I thought, “Oh, it is very beautiful and isn’t so far from London. I want to visit in the near future.” And so I kept the article.
In 2006, I had firstly planed to visit Wales with my friend, but finally I traveled alone and decided to travel around London because I didn’t have sufficient funds to visit far afield. Then, I remembered Knebworth House. “Where is it exactly?” I searched via the Internet and found out that it was some minutes drive from the nearest Stevenage station. From London, Kings’ Cross to Stevenage, it was about 40 minutes.
“If I need to use a car, I have to catch a taxi.”, I thought and hesitated a little because I didn’t know how much it would cost for the taxi fee. However, according to the site of Knebworth House, there would be an event on the first weekend after I arrived to England. I thought that there may have been a temporary bus service and decided to visit on the Saturday.

From Victoria, where I was staying, I took a bus to Kings’ Cross and arrived there at 10:45. When I got off the bus, I saw the station hadn’t been completely restored yet although about a year had passed since simultaneous attacks on some underground stations and a bus. I felt how severe the attacks must have been.
When I went to the ticket office, the station employee asked me, “Do you have a travel card?”
I showed him saying, “I have this one week pass”.
He said, “You can get a little discount because you have the pass.”
Lucky!!
I got on the 11:06 train at platform 10b and arrived at Stevenage at around 11:45. Firstly, I looked for some temporary buses, but I couldn’t find the service. Then, I went to a taxi terminal and asked one of the drivers, “I want to visit Knebworth House. How much is it?”
He answered, “I think that it will be about ?7. Even if the fee exceeds ?7, you will pay just ?7.”
It took about 10 minutes from the station to the gate of Knebworth House. I thought I should get off there, but he said, “Please pay the admission fee here. I’ll take you to the house.” When I walked back to the gate, I understood why he said so. Knebworth House is an enormous place, so there is a long, long road from the gate to the house.
The elderly driver probably came there many, many times, so he knew about the house well. While he was driving to the house, he explained, “You can see the mosque. It is the family grave.”, and “Many people bring their children to play here. They can enjoy the place all day long.” There is a vast grass field. I thought that it would be fun if I would lie down on the grass there.

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
It’s very famous phrase. However, probably, many people will wonder from what the phrase it comes. This line comes from “Richelieu”, a play written by Bulwer Lytton. According to “be on Saturday”, he lived there. However, his taste was very singular, so he decorated his house with a lot of adornment which was associated with the devil. His descendants were fed up with such decoration. Therefore, they removed most of the ornaments, but many of them still exist.
To maintain Knebworth House, it needs an enormous amount of money. Therefore, I heard that they rent the field for some concerts. Many musicians such as Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and Oasis, held concerts there. Moreover, some movies, “Batman” and “Harry Potter ”, were taken there.
Besides, there is a big slide in the field. In the back of the house, there are dolls including Homo Neanderthalensis, dinosaurs for children. I understood that the taxi driver had told that children could play all the day.
The building of the house is very, very large. The ornaments such as pictures and furniture, which decorate the rooms, are brilliant. The garden is well-maintained and beautiful. I enjoyed staying there.

After 2 o’clock. I left the house and walked toward the gate. Probably because an event was held there, there were many cars in the park. However, when I walked, not so many cars entered the gate because it was already after 2 o’clock. Moreover, almost all of the cars were private or rented ; I saw only a few taxis coming to the house.
When I arrived there, I thought I wanted to take a taxi which took some passengers to the house if possible. However, when I walked to the gate, I found out that it required a lot of luck to catch such a taxi. It was good that I received a phone card from the driver who took me to Knebworth House.

（2006.10.28）

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Trip to England

I really love London!