Well, it rained today and it was cold and windy but it didn`t really matter! I got to go round the shops, and later when it stopped raining for a bit we walked for 4 miles along the River Ness,crossed the islands in it ,walked up to the canal and back again. The River Ness is very wide and fast flowing and the houses and buildings in Inverness are quite unlike English houses.

Peter drove 300 miles today through Northumberland and Scotland. Northumberland is a beautiful county as we think every time we come up this far. There are lots of rolling hills covered in sheep and baby lambs, and hardly any traffic or towns. We obviously stopped at Flodden to view the battlefield (1513) Scotland seems to be very large hills covered in brown scrub with sleet falling from the sky. Inverness is yet to be investigated.

After a splendid breakfast we left our very nice bungalow room and drove to Kedleston Hall. Eleanor has also been here with us when she lived in Nottingham. It's a ' magnificent neo classical mansion' built as a showpiece palace designed by Robert Adam. It was all amazingly grand and symmetrical.

On the way to our first Holiday Inn in Derby we stopped off at Calke Abbey (previously visited with EW/ET when she was a student). The National Trust are preserving it in its state of decay so visitors could be forgiven for thinking that most rooms needed a good sort out! It was a huge house with lovely rolling gardens surrounded by beautiful Derbyshire hills.