Introduction : A Country Made of Men's Visions Looking at the Land
The History of the Cotswolds
Changing Views: Commentators on the Cotswolds
Living Landscape or Heritage Park?
Recent Views: Behind the Pretty Pictures
The Insiders' View Imagination and Images
Responses to the Landscape
Chapter One : Ancient Echoes: From Prehistory to the Coming of the Anglo-Saxons Exploring Belas Knap
Tombs from the Stone Age
At the Rollright Stones
Bronze-Age Survivals
Clues from the Celts
Remembering the Romans
Tracing the Ancient Ways
After the Romans
Anglo-Saxon Echoes
Chapter Two : Finding God in Gloucestershire: Saints, Churches and Clerics
Early Abbeys and the Boy Saint of Winchcombe
Sacred Sites and Saxon Sculptures
Norman Churches and Carvings
Stories on Walls
Woolgothic Wonders
The End of the Abbeys
Fame and Fraud at Hailes Abbey
Visitors at the Rectory: Jane Austen and John Wesley
John Keble at Eastleach
Non-Conformism: A Different Way of Worship
Selsey Church: Pre-Raphaelite Showcase
What Next?
Chapter Three : Living off the Land: Sheep, Crops and Stone
Wealth from Wool Fields, Commons and Walls
Good Times and Bad Times for Farmers
Experiments and Communities: Charterville and Whiteway
Old Mont of Enstone: A Life on the Land
Farming Today: Super-stars and Strugglers
The Stone and the Magician: Quarries and Quarrymen
Using the Stone: Stonemasons and Dry-stone Wallers
Building Today: The Tradition Continues
Chapter Four : The Cotswolds at War: Battlefields, Memories and Memorials
The Civil War Begins: The Battle of Edgehill
Fighting on the Edge: The Battle of Lansdown
A Region at War
Damage and Confusion
The Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold: The End of the Fighting
Images of Cavaliers: Stow-on-the-Wold and Swinbrook
The Burford Levellers
Two World Wars
Bertie, May and Mrs. Fish in Wartime
Modern Times
Chapter Five : Posh Cotswolds: Royalty, Aristocracy and Celebrities
Woodstock Palace: Kings and Queens in the Forest
Minster Lovell and a Dreadful Doom
Sudeley Castle and the Tudors
Blenheim Palace: England's Grandest Stately Home
Marlboroughs, Vanderbilts and Churchills
Dyrham Park and The Remains of the Day
Chastleton and Stanway: Houses with Memories
New Owners for Old Homes
Chapter Six : Mills, Steam and Machinery: The Industrial Age
Hard Labour at Castle Combe
"A Truly Noble Manufacture"
The Coming of the Machines
John Halifax, Gentleman: Perfect Progress at Dunkirk Mill?
"They Say the Suffering is Very Great Indeed"
Changing Trades
Blankets and Bliss in Oxfordshire
Carving up the Landscape: Roads and Canals
Great Railway Adventures: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Train-Spotting in the Cotswolds: The Reverend Awdry
Chapter Seven : "Heaven on Earth": William Morris at Kelmscott Manor and Broadway Tower
William and Janey
"A Little House out of London"
A Serpent in Paradise
"Old Grey House by the River"
Later Years at Kelmscott
Kelmscott Today
Views from Broadway Tower
Chapter Eight : Seeking the Simple Life: Arts and Crafts at Sapperton and Chipping Campden
Back to the Land: In Search of a Rural Alternative
Gimson and the Barnsleys: The Start of a Dream
Pinbury Park: A Workshop in the Woods
Settling in at Sapperton
Ernest Gimson: Master Designer
Ashbee's Vision: The Start of the Guild of Handicrafts
Creating Camelot: The Guild at Chipping Campden
Good Years for the Guild
The End of the Dream
Chipping Campden Today
Chapter Nine : Arty Crafty Cotswolds: The Next Generation
Campden Crafts
Fine Furniture in Broadway
Plain Pottery in Winchcombe
Women Designers in the Cotswolds
"Arty Crafty" Lifestyles
Designing Cotswold Homes
Owlpen Manor: "Resuscitated Dream-Place"
Arts and Crafts on Display: Two Museums and Rodmarton Manor
Cotswold Crafts Today
Chapter Ten : A Cotswold Life: Laurie Lee in the Slad Valley
Lees in the Valley
Scenes from Slad
After Rosie
Return to Slad
A Child in the Valley
The Return of the Native?
Slad Today
Chapter Eleven : Picturing the Scene: Writers, Artists and Musicians in the Cotswolds
William Shakespeare: "Wild Hills" and Justice Shallow's country
On Bredon Hill with Housman
Ivor Gurney: Poetry and Music at Cranham and Crickley
James Elroy Flecker on Painswick Hill
Hilaire Belloc: A Brief Voyage on the Evenlode
A Poet Laureate in Chipping Campden
A Supertramp in Nailsworth
T. S. Eliot at Burnt Norton
U. A. Fanthorpe at Wotton-under-Edge
John Buchan's Adventures in Wychwood Forest
J. B. Priestley's Hitherton-on-the-Wole
Barbara Pym in Finstock
Jilly (and Joanna) in Rutshire
Artists and Writers in Broadway
The View from Far Oakridge: Rothenstein, Beerbohm and Drinkwater
Stanley Spencer in Leonard Stanley
Music from the Cotswolds: Vaughan Williams and Holst
Chapter Twelve : Eccentric Cotswolds: Collectors, Dreamers and Dangerous Games
Snowshill Manor: A House of Curiosities
"Curiouser and Curiouser"
Sezincote House: A Mogul Fantasy
Batsford Arboretum: Inspiration from the East
Mitfords in the Cotswolds
A Very Unusual Childhood
Games, Quarrels and Horror at Swinbrook
Swinbrook Today
Woodchester Mansion: The House That Was Never a Home
Toddington Manor: Damien Hirst's Treasure Cave
Chapter Thirteen : Shaping the Landscape: Gardens and Gardeners in the Cotswolds
Cirencester Park: Alexander Pope's "Enchanted Forest"
Eighteenth-Century Elegance: Rousham, Painswick and Stanway
Capability Brown at Blenheim
Humphry Repton (and Jane Austen) in the Cotswolds
Chastleton House: A Jacobean Wonderland
Owlpen Manor: Gardens of Paradise
Arts and Crafts Gardens in the Cotswolds
Major Lawrence Johnson at Hidcote Manor
Two Women's Visions: Kiftsgate Court and Barnsley House
The Gardener Prince at Highgrove
Chapter Fourteen : The Cotswolds at Play: Sports, Games and Leisure Pursuits
Hunting Country
Equestrian Sports
Ancient Races
Cricket on the Wolds
The Cotswold Olimpicks
Festivals, Fairs and Merrymaking
Cheese Rolling, River Football and Other Strange Pursuits
Morris Dancers (And Some Strong Reactions)
Leisure and Pleasure
The Heart of England: Rambling and Ramblers
Further Reading
Index of Literary, Artistic & Historical Names
Index of Places & Landmarks.