Lording It Over England’s Decade-Old Inland Sea

When you armchair or otherwise daydream about your next trip to England, turn your fantasies toward an inland sea less than a two-hour drive from London.

This would be a sea you could sail any time of the year, matching your skills acquired on Southern California waters with the English Olympic Sailing Team that trains here.

When the weather warms, or if you wear a wet suit, you could windsurf on Rutland Water the morning after enjoying such hits as “Pravda” or “Les Miserables” at a London theater.

On the other hand, you might prefer to fish for brown and rainbow trout in waters rated among Europe’s finest still-water trout fisheries.

On a peninsula reaching far out onto the water, you would stay at a country manor house built as a lodge for London’s wealthy and titled fox hunters of the 19th Century.

Riding to Hounds

You would, of course, also be able to go fox hunting like a visiting lord throughout the high season of following the hounds and hopping the hedges, from the end of October to the beginning of March.

There would be bicycles as well as sailboats and canoes for rent, and miles of cycling and walking trails around this inland sea.

Surrounding such a location, you could daydream of finding some of the great and least-known country houses of England, displaying works of art in settings much more enjoyable than city museums. The villages in this countryside would seem to have been sculptured from medieval stone.

For other moods and moments, there would be the words written by your host and hostess reminding guests that this restored hunting lodge overlooking moonlight on the water is a place “to feel romantic or make someone else feel romantic.”

If you’re beginning to wish that all of this wasn’t a fantasy, and that you could just pick up the phone and put your travel agent to work, the good news is that England’s inland sea has been a reality for a decade. But most U.S. travelers to England have yet to find their way here.

Rutland Water is a 20th-Century fantasy-cum-reality. It is under the administration of the Anglian Water Authority, which welcomes visitors to “Europe’s largest man-made lake.”

Created by Parliament

The reservoir was created by an act of Parliament and completed between 1970 and 1976 to supply water to an expanding population in towns of the Rutland countryside. But the real growth of the past decade has been in recreational facilities as the contours of this English midland turned a reservoir into what the people of Rutland proudly call their own inland sea.

It has 27 miles of shoreline bays and marinas, a sailing reach five miles long, a peninsula that seems to have been here since glacial times. The five-mile walk around the peninsula takes a leisurely 2 1/2 hours.

With the building of the reservoir conduits and dam, Hambleton Hall, a 19th-Century hunting lodge, suddenly found itself on the peninsula in a spectacular waterside setting. There had not been even a dream of Rutland Water when Hambleton was built in 1881 as a fox hunting lodge for Walter Marshall, who had amassed a huge fortune from the brewing of ale.

The lodge passed on to his younger sister, Eva Astley-Cooper, who enjoyed fox hunting but was happiest presiding over a salon as benefactress for such budding talents as the youthful Noel Coward, who became one of the most honored British playwrights, and actors, producers and composers.

History of Hambleton

Stories of Hambleton Hall and the Rutland Water countryside are told for guests in a booklet of literary quality by Tim and Stefa Hart, the couple who acquired and restored Hambleton, opening it for guests in 1980. It is home to them and their three sons, ages 4 through 12. Guests have the feeling of staying in one of England’s finest private homes.

My wife Elfriede and I reached here on our last stop of driving through byways of the English countryside. Driving north about 90 miles from London on Highway A1, turn east on A606 toward Oakham and you will quickly be at Rutland Water.

Those who do come here are in no hurry to get back on the highway. In their restoration of Hambleton Hall, the Harts have created a country house that is already listed among the distinguished Relais & Chateau of Europe.

An oak door leads into the entrance hall with its glowing fireplace. The drawing room reflects the work of interior decorator Nina Campbell.

Hambleton has only 14 guest rooms. Most overlook Rutland Water and the rolling green landscape beyond. Antiques accent the Victorian atmosphere of the accommodations, and the bathrooms are carpeted.

Culinary Delights

The dining room is ranked with the best in Britain. Wines are selected by the Harts for flavor rather than just a fashionable label. The menus for Christmas Day will begin with “A Little Salad of Wild Mushrooms and Truffles.”

After the turkey, a sorbet of pink champagne precedes the farmhouse Camembert and fresh goat-milk cheese. The main course of the equally elaborate New Year’s Eve menu will be “Roast Filet of Aberdeen Angus Beef.”

Maxim’s chief chef came from Paris to train the Hambleton chef and kitchen staff. With such dining, it helps that Hambleton Hall has its own tennis court and miles of walking trails. There are three nearby golf courses in what was once the small county of Rutland.

Local folks have not yet forgiven the political workings that absorbed Rutland into Leicestershire a decade ago. They still list their address as Rutland, making concession to the postal system only by putting the letters “LE” as part of their zip code.

A booklet titled “Rutland Trails” led us around the lake, into the countryside and to villages that meld a thousand years of history. The driving trail around the water leads to one of Europe’s leading winter wildfowl reserves and other vistas for bird watchers. Whitwell Fishing Lodge offers sailboats and bike rentals as well as fishing. Rutland Sailing Club has a thousand sailboats in its slips.

The town of Edith Weston on the waterfront is named after Queen Edith, Edward the Confessor’s wife, who owned much of Rutland in the 11th Century. The village of Whitwell informs visitors that it is the sister city of Paris.

Old Market Town

The old market town of Oakham is closest to Hambleton Hall. For more than 400 years it was the custom for every peer of the realm passing through town to leave a horseshoe, a collection that’s housed in the remains of a Norman castle.

Above Oakham, the ancient town of Melton Mowbray was as important to 19th-Century fox hunters as St. Moritz in Switzerland became to skiers. In this countryside you can still ride with the legendary Belvoir, Quorn and Fernie hounds. Prince Charles will ride with these hounds this winter.

Richard the Lionheart relaxed at Melton Mowbray. The town’s cathedral-size Church of St. Mary the Virgin dates to about 1170. Stilton cheese and the famous Melton Mowbray pork pies are featured, along with the past and present life of the town in the Melton Carnegie Museum.

The Danes and Vikings ran their boats up the River Welland for raids around Rockingham Castle, about 15 minutes from Hambleton. Homemade teas are served at the castle when you stop to view its collection of English paintings. The 16th-Century Althorp House displays works of Rubens, Van Dyck and Reynolds, along with a collection of porcelain and furniture.

Elizabethan Palace

Burghley House is an Elizabethan palace where the resident Lord in the 18th Century started “The Gentleman Collector” exhibition that includes scientific instruments of the time, Chinese snuff boxes and the great silver wine cooler recently displayed in Washington, D.C. This palatial house is approached through a Capability Brown, an 18th-Century designation for a parklike setting that Brown designed.

To transform fantasies into realities around Rutland Water, contact Hambleton Hall, Hambleton, Oakham, Rutland LE15 8TH, England. The telephone number is (0572) 56991. Rates for a twosome start at about 90 (about $135), including continental breakfast. During fox-hunting season there is a 50% discount on the room rate for couples staying three nights or more.