Sunday, August 26, 2012
Visit report 2
On Saturday 18th August to no less an establishment than Arlington Court, placed 82nd in the National Trust Hall of Fame.
An excellent place, rather along the lines of the much higher placed Polesden Lacey, this lower place despite once being the property of a companion of the conqueror rather than that of a Scottish beer heiress. Proper aristo. So we had an interesting house with interesting contents, plus shops, eatery, church and extensive grounds: just the thing for a dull but mainly dry day. Oddly enough, the descendants of said companion had a penchant for burial at Brookwood and other metropolitan necropolises. One can only suppose that they found North Devon a bit dull and spent most of their time in the metropolis.
The most interesting part of the house for me was the extensive collection of model boats, mainly faithful models between one and two feet long of warships of the Trafalgar era, some made by French prisoners of war to while away their captive years. It was a pity I did not own such a thing during the part of my childhood when I was fond of Hornblower books; it would have gone a long way to dispelling the mysteries of yards and running rigging. So I learned, for example, that topsail yards are lowered a little way down their mast for safe keeping when not in use. There were also a lot of shells (inside) and a lot of carriages (outside). We did not bother with these last, being sure that the real thing could not match the stuff of ITV3 costume dramas.
The gardens were graced with large numbers of araucaria araucana, the largest number I have ever seen in one place. Groves of them. I had always known that they were rather odd trees but I learn this morning the further oddity of their having very few relations. Not at all like most garden plants which mostly seem to come from very large families.
Very relaxed ambience. One was not constrained to walk a one way route and one was allowed to touch some of the exhibits. All very refreshing. A trustee told us that this was the new fashion; a move away from the previously precious stance.
Grub rather mixed. BH's jacket was rather tired while my soup was rather veggie. The rather dull soup which one associates with healthy living and the sort of soup which is sold in milk cartons. Not a bit of flavour enhancing bacon in sight. They did rather better at tea and tea cakes at tea time, even thinking to provide chaffinches to hoover up the crumbs.
Second hand book shop poor. Not sure why they bothered. Oddly enough the whole holiday only produced two second hand books - 'Uncle Tungsten' by Sacks and 'Black Beauty' by Sewell. I had been after one of these last for some reason or other - a reason which I have now forgotten but perhaps it will come back to me if I get through the thing - which seems, at page 50 or so, a touch unlikely. I declined a rather good, if rather battered, school edition of the two parts of Henry IV, not originally bought at the same time as the covers were subtly different, but overpriced at £4 each with the (South Molton) barrow boy not taking £5 for the two. Good because it included rather less heavy textual & literary stuff than Arden but rather more historical stuff about the dramatis personae. Which baron was bashing which and all that sort of thing. Possibly Ginn & Co. of Boston, USA.
PS: now found a Chrome troubleshoot button. Which resulted in something being done to Chrome. Not had a freeze since but early days yet.
An excellent place, rather along the lines of the much higher placed Polesden Lacey, this lower place despite once being the property of a companion of the conqueror rather than that of a Scottish beer heiress. Proper aristo. So we had an interesting house with interesting contents, plus shops, eatery, church and extensive grounds: just the thing for a dull but mainly dry day. Oddly enough, the descendants of said companion had a penchant for burial at Brookwood and other metropolitan necropolises. One can only suppose that they found North Devon a bit dull and spent most of their time in the metropolis.
The most interesting part of the house for me was the extensive collection of model boats, mainly faithful models between one and two feet long of warships of the Trafalgar era, some made by French prisoners of war to while away their captive years. It was a pity I did not own such a thing during the part of my childhood when I was fond of Hornblower books; it would have gone a long way to dispelling the mysteries of yards and running rigging. So I learned, for example, that topsail yards are lowered a little way down their mast for safe keeping when not in use. There were also a lot of shells (inside) and a lot of carriages (outside). We did not bother with these last, being sure that the real thing could not match the stuff of ITV3 costume dramas.
The gardens were graced with large numbers of araucaria araucana, the largest number I have ever seen in one place. Groves of them. I had always known that they were rather odd trees but I learn this morning the further oddity of their having very few relations. Not at all like most garden plants which mostly seem to come from very large families.
Very relaxed ambience. One was not constrained to walk a one way route and one was allowed to touch some of the exhibits. All very refreshing. A trustee told us that this was the new fashion; a move away from the previously precious stance.
Grub rather mixed. BH's jacket was rather tired while my soup was rather veggie. The rather dull soup which one associates with healthy living and the sort of soup which is sold in milk cartons. Not a bit of flavour enhancing bacon in sight. They did rather better at tea and tea cakes at tea time, even thinking to provide chaffinches to hoover up the crumbs.
Second hand book shop poor. Not sure why they bothered. Oddly enough the whole holiday only produced two second hand books - 'Uncle Tungsten' by Sacks and 'Black Beauty' by Sewell. I had been after one of these last for some reason or other - a reason which I have now forgotten but perhaps it will come back to me if I get through the thing - which seems, at page 50 or so, a touch unlikely. I declined a rather good, if rather battered, school edition of the two parts of Henry IV, not originally bought at the same time as the covers were subtly different, but overpriced at £4 each with the (South Molton) barrow boy not taking £5 for the two. Good because it included rather less heavy textual & literary stuff than Arden but rather more historical stuff about the dramatis personae. Which baron was bashing which and all that sort of thing. Possibly Ginn & Co. of Boston, USA.
PS: now found a Chrome troubleshoot button. Which resulted in something being done to Chrome. Not had a freeze since but early days yet.
# posted by Jim @ 1:37 AM 
