Ten of us in total rode 45 miles in sunshine (mainly) but some brief showers (of rain, hail and snow!!).  A few history stops along the way -- Basing House, now a ruin but once a 360-room Royalist garrison besieged by Parliamentary Forces for two years until the walls were finally breached in October 1645 by the heavy cannon brought in by Oliver Cromwell.  This English Civil Wall ultimately led to the beheading of Charles 1 in January 1649; an interesting old church with a Jacobean pulpit, 13/14th century timbers, and bells that have summoned parishioners to worship for over 500 years.  The church contains the tomb of John Keate who for 24 years was the 'flogging' Headmaster of Eton College and for the following 24 years was Rector of the Parish; Stratfield Saye House, built in 1630 by Sir William Pitt, Comptroller of the Household to James 1 and gifted by a grateful nation to the Duke of Wellington following the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, and still occupied by the Wellington family; The Vine, a Tudor mansion built in the 16th century for Henry V111's Lord Chamberlain and visited by Henry a number of times including in 1535 with Anne Boleyn (later executed on 19 May 1536 on (probably false) charges of incest and witchcraft.  Newly superbly renovated thatched pub for lunch where the food was good and reasonably priced but service was slow even though the food order had been telephoned through at 10.30am and they had been kept updated with the time of our arrival.  A generally fairly flat ride through lovely countryside and some pretty hamlets, all on quiet roads.  Arriving back at Basingstoke Station just before 6pm the Waterloo train pulled in as we were carrying our bikes up the stairs (it is a frequent and fast service) and 52 minutes later we were back in London.