Could there be a more picturesque & rural county than Hereford?   Beyond the Malvern Hills,  the scene is of tranquil fields & hills,  hop-poles & oast houses,  broken by pretty villages with ancient black & white, timber-framed buildings.

There is only one big city in the county,  but what a city!  Hereford contains its huge Cathedral which houses two of the country's greatest ancient treasures;  the Chained Library of medieval books & the totally astonishing Mappa Mundi,  dating from the early fourteenth century.  What a curious world that shows, circular,  full of fabled foreign cities, strange beasts & weirder men;  the Red Sea is painted red, Jerusalem is in the centre & the Garden of Eden still exists at the very far side of the disk.  England, on the extreme edge,  with its two attendant islands,  Scotland (yes, that's not a misprint!)  & Ireland,  has a number of towns marked, including Hereford.

Outside the city limits, lovely places!  The Golden Valley,  Hay-on-Wye, the  renowned book-town (OK, not really in the County, just outside,) the famous three castles (White Castle, Grosmont & Skenfrith) still guarding the border,  St Briavel's Castle in the Forest of Dean,  with its forest trails & its coal mines,  quiet  Bromyard,     picturesque Ledbury,  half-timbered Weobley, the bizarre church at Kilpeck.        Who could resist a visit to such glorious places?