On July 13 I took a shore excursion from the Queen Mary 2 to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and the New Forest and discovered that this area in the south of England is the most Gothic place on earth. Chills went up my spine when I saw barrows around Stonehenge. One could never tell what was around the next bend as our tour bus drove through the New Forest through tunnels formed by trees over the road. The gorse bushes looked creepy. I leaped six inches when I saw eyes peering at me through the gorse. A wild pony got up and trotted away, but it had looked like something far more sinister under a cloudy, lowering sky. Ravens greeted us sitting on a fence at Stonehenge and on the Close once we arrived at Salisbury Cathedral. Once inside we encountered the grisly remains of bishops and local potentates in the form of tomb-chests and painted effigies. It seemed like the very essence of the Gothic.