Priscilla Richardson

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Normally, you Botetourt County folks star in this column. But this week, I'm adding two co-stars, two ladies who came to Botetourt and were absolutely entranced.

Their names? Pamela Mattinson, of Camberley, Surrey -- that's in England -- and her friend Jill Brammer, of Ross-on-Wye, also located in England but almost on the Welsh border. Mattinson, a widow with three grown sons and seven grandchildren, just happens to have a sister who has been my friend for years. But I had never had a chance to get to know Mattinson until now. Brammer, a world traveler, was taking a break from the care of an invalid husband and father back home. The two had visited Myrtle Beach, S.C., and then headed back to Dulles airport via the mountains.

Mattinson has been in America so many times she didn't even think about going to see her sister in New Jersey. "We're meeting at the christening of my latest grandchild next week, back home in England," she said.

These two travelers have been friends since they met in 1962 when they were on Fulbright fellowships to teach in the United States. Mattinson, now retired as a teacher of domestic science, and Brammer, now retired from teaching the third grade, started their friendship on a trip. They and two other women went from New York to Chicago and then drove the legendary Route 66 out West. They went down into the Grand Canyon on mules, and visited Las Vegas, too. As part of their fellowships, they were invited to the White House, where they shook hands with President Kennedy.

Since then, despite careers and families, they have managed to work in a lot more travel, and not always together. Brammer compared an excursion they took up a river in the Carolina low country to what she saw on her trip to the Amazon, much to Mattinson's amazement.

It takes more than a royal sighting to thrill these two. Mattinson used to teach at Windsor Girls High School, and they were "always seeing the queen at various events." More recently, she and some family were in Windsor Great Park, where they saw the queen going down the park's Long Walk. "The Duke [of Windsor, the queen's husband] was driving," Mattinson said.

Getting this duo started on the differences in the U.S. between when they each first saw it and now starts a flood of reminiscences. The first trip here for each was on the Queen Mary. They went back on the Queen Elizabeth. "It was so much easier to manage the time that way," Brammer said. "You only changed [the time zone] a few hours a day. And the trip was so much nicer than on a plane."

Since these two drive a lot, the huge differences in the American roads between then and now strikes them. "It took us four days to drive from New York to Florida back then," Mattinson said. And of course during our heat waves they love cars with air conditioning, a luxury not generally available back then. They note color televisions now, one in every room. "We used to have just one black and white set for a whole house," she remembered. They especially noticed how many more houses and buildings there are here now, and how little open land.

Another big change is the world awareness of our general populations. "When I got home [in 1962], I was the only person around who had been to America," Brammer said. "But travel now is so much easier, many Brits have been to America."

"And Americans know a lot more about England," Mattinson added.

But few Brits come to Fincastle, and these two just loved it. We three did Historic Fincastle's Home and Garden Tour. It reminded them of seeing stately homes in England. They were thrilled with the gardens, because each of them cherishes her own. Afterward, they gave me some good ideas about improving my own straggly rosebushes.

But most of all, they want to come back. To see other gardens. To see more houses. To enjoy the friendly folks they met here. Two new Botetourt fans. Two new co-stars.