Sherston

Leaving the village and heading along a lane towards Sherston, you'll see the scenery open out to reveal gorgeous green fields on either side as you pedal towards lunch – just one short ascent between you and a plate of Malmesbury Gold pork sausages and spring-onion mash at the 16th-century Rattlebone Inn.

My favourite bike ride – the Cotswolds 2011

Head back out of Sherston into quiet country lanes that thread their way between meadows to the National Arboretum at Westonbirt.

My favourite bike ride – the Cotswolds 2011

Almost filling up the steep, lane-like street which leads down to the Savoy Hotel, were rows of ambulances, groups of nurses, and Red Cross men, and absorbed though he was once more in his own sensations, and the thought of the terrible ordeal that lay in front of him, Sherston yet found himself admiring the quickness with which they had been rushed hither.

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy

But though they soon became friends, and though he went on seeing a great deal of her, all through that autumn and winter, Sherston feared to put his fate to the touch, and he was jealous -- God alone knew how hideously, intolerably jealous -- of the khaki-clad soldiers who came and went in her father's house in town. and then, one day, during the second summer of their acquaintance,

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy

"Yes, she certainly is dead," said Sherston dully.

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy

They were not likely to forget it either, for whenever it was mentioned, each of them at once remembered that which at the time it had happened, Sherston had every reason to tell rather than to conceal, namely, that the woman who had been his wife had gone down with the Titanic.

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy

"Any one hurt?" asked Sherston in a strangled tone.

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy

Four days after their parting had come the astounding news of the sinking of the liner, followed, by Sherston, by a period of strange, painful suspense, filled with the eager scanning of lists, cables to and from America, finally terminated by an official intimation that poor Kitty had gone down in, and with, the ship.

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy

Sherston in his heart often blessed the Sepelin scare which had banished the monstrous, flaring signs which, till a few months ago, had so offended his eyes each time that he looked out into the night, towards the water.

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy

Sherston was a widower, though he never used the word, even in his innermost heart, for to him the term connoted something slightly absurd, and he was sensitive to ridicule.

Defenders of Democracy; contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy