Hever Castle

Hever Castle: the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and renovation project of the legendary John Jacob Astor and his family.  This intrigue, combined with the cheap train fare and a Yahoo! Travel article about Hever in the fall, provided all the motivation I needed to persuade me to rally a group of friends and get up early on a Sunday.  Getting to Hever turned into a bit of an unexpected challenge-- it required two train changes, a forty-five minute layover, and a twenty minute walk on a back-country road with no sidewalk to get from Hever Station to the castle.  Luckily, today was another one of those perfect, clear-sky, cool breeze kind of autumn days, so my whole group relished in the opportunity to see the country-side by foot.

When we arrived at Hever Castle, I could just tell that writing this blog post would present a bit of a problem.  You see, Hever is another one of those superlative, picturesque, totally cliched sites.  A flawless tudor house set in a rolling country landscape, the castle itself is small, intimate, and manageable.  The castle, deserted compared to its more famous cousins scattered around England, presents its history in a non-overwhelming style at a reasonable pace.  Home to two Books of Hours (akin to today's prayer books) inscribed by Anne Boleyn herself, the site draws many Tudor fanatics.  In fact, the divorce settlement between Henry VIII and his fourth wife Anne of Cleves left Hever Castle to Anne, only adding to the Tudor-mania.

A water-maze, a regular maze, flawlessly kept gardens, and two nature walks perfectly complement the charm of the castle.  The grounds, a result of the Astor-era restorations, also feature a lake and a waterfall.  In all honesty, the grounds enchanted me just as much as the history-rich castle.  Ambitious tourists can even rent rowboats to take out onto the lake!  At this point in my study abroad experience, I think I could write a whole book about the places best suited for fall foliage enjoyment in England.  And if I were ever charged with that momentous task, Hever Castle would surely grace the top of the list.