Research and living in England

My first novel was set in England during the 1840s yet written in Hungary. Research consisted of pouring over texts and making an occasional trip to England to visit a university library. Now, living in the UK, it is infinitely easier. If I wish to see a particular Pre-Raphaelite painting I have only to jump in a car or hop on a train to visit one of four art galleries within an hour's journey away. This past weekend a nagging question concerning the size of nineteenth-century coaches had the family including guests piling into the car to visit nearby Shugborough, the historic family seat of the Earls of Lichfield.

Not only is research easier but now I understand that the hedgerows of George Eliot's novels exist only in certain parts of England. It is one thing to read of the desolate beauty of the Yorkshire moors, see the glimmering cliffs of Dover in one's mind's eye, and waltz around the Bath Assembly Rooms in the company of Jane Austen's memorable cast of characters. Yet it is quite another to see such places for oneself, coloured of course by what one has read and understood.