Meandering in a wilderness of boulders, the river was stone-coloured.

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In the centre of Oxford stands a handsome Gothic memorial of honey-coloured stone.

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Today this low-rise town is a modest spread of boxy cream-coloured stone, but its prosperous heyday was in the 6th Century and remnants of Byzantine finery remain behind its unassuming facades.

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'Even Ringo has adapted to the colours, ' she says, gesturing towards a sandy-coloured dog almost precisely the same hue as the stone flagstone on which he is lying.

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