Castles and Houses

Tuesday, April 3

I suppose that for a die hard Downton Abbey fan, no trip to England would be complete without a visit to Highclere Castle, the set for all of the Downton Abbey "upstairs" filming; the "downstairs" filming was done on a set in London. 

Our daughter-in-law, Carrie, did the homework and bought her family their tickets before leaving the US. Larry and I had our Historic Houses membership which got us in at no charge. 

With all of the rain lately, the grassy parking lots were pure muck and some of them were closed due to flooding. When we checked that morning, the website for the castle said that they were only accepting people with pre-paid tickets because of the reduced parking availability. Larry and I were a bit concerned that we would drive an hour plus just to find that we could not get in. Our ploy was to go to the ticket counter right behind Jonathan and Carrie, show our passes and explain that we are all together. For whatever reason, the admission system was not working as it should and it did not recognize our membership number. We waited quite a few minutes while the volunteers at the gate tried to figure out the problem. Finally, seeing that we did have our proper paperwork, they let us in and said that they would figure out the logistics later, but that they didn't want to hold up the line any further. 

Naturally, it was a drizzly day and Highclere is on a rise with no barrier trees around it, so there was a bit of a stiff breeze as well. While we were waiting our turn for timed entry into the castle, the drizzle turned to a complete downpour for a few minutes, so much so that by the time we entered the building, we were dripping. 

There were no photos allowed anywhere inside of the building. Suffice it to say that all of the rooms on display to visitors were readily recognizable to viewers of Downton; the library, the dining room, the great hall (which the owners call a "saloon").

The grounds were still soggy when we left the building, but walking paths around the castle provided enough solid ground to visit the gardens, which were designed by the famous landscape architect, Capability Brown, sometime during the 1700's.

Here's our family during a break from the drizzle:

On our way back to the cottage, Larry and I stopped in, briefly, to the Roman Villa at Chedworth. We have been there twice before, but it was on the way and free to us with our National Trust cards. Over the years there has been a lot of work done on the site, including some excavation work.

I love Roman mosaic floors. Here are some from the villa, not really in great shape, but considering when they were installed, it's still amazing to be able to see them.

These floors were in one of the baths. This photo shows the below level heating system employed for warming the rooms. Hot air would be circulated through the stacks to heat the floor. Then the next room would have cold air beneath the floor to chill the room.

It was late in the day and since we had been here before, we didn't stay long. There were no new exhibits or discoveries since we visited four years ago.

Wednesday, April 4

By now, regular readers of my blog will have noticed that Larry and I are big fans of William Morris designs. When we were in London a few weeks ago, we went to the house that he lived in when a teenager (which is now a gallery of his company's work), we saw part of the permanent collection of his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum and we went to this house that he had built for himself and his new wife called The Red House in Bletchley Heath.

There was one more place that we wanted to see, but it had not opened yet. It is called Kelmscott Manor in a small town in West Oxfordshire.

William and his wife, Jane, Morris took a long term lease on this house with their friends Dante Gabriel Rossetti (the pre-Raphaelite painter) and his wife, Elizabeth, in 1871 as a summer house.

They expanded the house, adding a wing to house a light-filled studio for their work. Morris used the studio to produce many designs during his time there. 

At some point, the Morrises bought out the Rossettis and leased it by themselves from then on. After Jane Morris' death, their daughter, May, gave the house the Society of Antiquaries of London.

The house is much the same as it did at the time of her death.

The weather was still a bit damp outside, but we enjoyed our trip to Kelmscott.

Thursday, April 5

Jonathan and Carrie left us on Thursday to go to London for a couple of days. They had a gorgeous day, for a change, after all of the bad weather that they endured in the Cotswolds.

I took a walk down the road to take some photos of the River Eye which went right by our little village. We have had so few nice days that I really appreciated this one.

Friday, April 6

Friday was our day to leave the Cotswolds. I really enjoyed not only our time there, but also staying in one place for nearly a month. I was there long enough to pretty much learn my way around.

We were headed to Kent for a little less than two weeks and picked up Larry's sister, Linda, at the airport on the way.

Our rental, just our third for our 7 1/2 weeks here in England, is very spacious with two bedrooms and two bathrooms situated at the ends of the space and the kitchen and common space in between. This is a perfect space for the three of us.

Saturday, April 7

One place that was high on our list of things to do was Chartwell, Winston Churchill's summer home. It is far enough outside of London to make it difficult to get there while in London, so we chose to go there while in staying in Kent. It was also necessary to have a car to get there.

The entrance to the house is rather unprepossessing, and considering that the Churchills made significant changes to the house, they must not have placed much importance on the front door. Some front doors are grand and full of fanciful stonework and others, even on very large houses, seem to be almost an afterthought. 

The inside of the house is clearly the home of someone of means, but not at all ostentatious.

This is Churchill's study.

This is Lady Churchill's bedroom/study.

Housed in the wing that they added is the dining room. It is on the first floor and has uncharacteristically low ceilings compared to the rest of the house. It has these large trellis-shaped windows looking out onto the gardens. The general effect of the room is informal, almost like a breakfast room. On a sunny day (eventually there will be sun!) it would be a lovely place to have tea and toast.

One small former bedroom of the house is devoted to Churchill's various "costumes" -- from the informal, his favorite lounging one-piece,  to the ultra formal, his ceremonial robes.

Pictured here are one of his ceremonial robes and his wartime uniform.

Thinking that Churchill might not be able to afford to keep up the house and its 80 acres, his friends raised the funds to purchase the house and maintain it. Lady Churchill gave it to the National Trust with the proviso that basically nothing should be changed. She wanted the British people to see how the house looked when it was lived in.

Not commonly known (by Americans) is that Churchill was a prolific painter. Although he did not start painting until he was 40, he produced over 500 paintings, all in oil, over the next 48 years, many of them on display throughout the house and his studio.

Sunday, April 8

Sunday promised to be a day without actual rain, so we took a trip to Canterbury.

Canterbury is a city with many very old houses and shops. This book shop is probably the most photographed building in the city (aside from the Cathedral, of course).

This building, which probably dates from the mid-1500's has evidently been leaning at a precarious angle for some time. A famous Victorian author (whose name I have forgotten at the moment) remarked on its leaning more than a hundred years ago.

The major attraction, of course, is the Cathedral.

Canterbury Cathedral and the Archbishop of Canterbury are to the Church of England as the Vatican and the Pope are to the Holy Roman Catholic Church. However, the Catholics with all of their Renaissance art, colorful vestments, Swiss Guards and general pomp and ceremony do a much better job of being important. In a typically British way, the Cathedral and all that goes with it is quietly regal and low key for being the administrative seat of the Church. 

I would guess that at least part of the edifice is under scaffolding all of the time. There seems to be a continuing conservation program in progress to clean and/or repair portions of the stonework. Without maintenance, these wonderful stone facades will very slowly disintegrate and crumble.

These two statues stood out amongst all of the others because they look so clean, which actually gives us an idea of what the church might have looked like when newly built.

A closer inspection revealed that this is Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

I don't think that the statue of the Queen much resembles her.

I can't imagine what it would be like to see a statue of yourself. I suppose that if you are a monarch you would get used to it. After all, the portrait of the monarch is used on everything from the money to kitschy souvenirs. But seeing a statue of one's self might be slightly creepy since statues are usually of the deceased.

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