Scotney Castle 2013

Scotney's a bargain...you've got your great house, 19th century, your gardens, and then your folly, which is actually a 15th century fortified residence that has been wrecked in order to create a "folly." The residences are nice, but it's the garden--a forest of rhododendrons and more--that most impresses. And we were there at just the height of the bloom.

Scotney, frontal view of the "new" house

Other side

The usual comforts

Thus

And up those stairs is the apartment
Margaret Thatcher used as a quiet "get-away"
during her years as PM

But the real glory of the place is the folly, the moated
15th century residence below, and the gardens around it

Me in the "holloway," the Old Bayham Track,
the ancient road dug through the estate by
centuries of travel, mostly by pigs going to
market...the signage said "This little piggy
went to market"

It was at this point we figured out we were not arriving in
England too late to see the rhododendrons and the azaleas

"Rhodo Riot" I began calling it; everywhere;
and as we moved from Kent to Sussex, it got
better, much better

Thus; and a sprinkling of azaleas too

Along the moat surrounding the old castle

Thus; in the 19th century, the family had the old structure
partially torn down in order to create a "folly" (look it up) for
the gardens 

Us, on the moat, the old castle--aka the folly--and the new
residence in the distance; it was our 45th wedding anniversary

More rhodos

New residence from the old

On the moat again; was this what Monet was
aiming for?

The folly's tower

And more rhodos...

Sissinghurst Castle

For our first home and garden visit, we drove to Sissinghurst, just a short distance from Ashford, the home and garden of Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. The estate began as a Saxon pig farm (origin of the expression "Saxon pigs!"), but by the 16th century had a large Renaissance house, 38 fireplaces and a 120 foot long hall. The next few centuries were rough, however, the estate serving as a POW camp for French sailors in the Seven Years War (the French and Indian Wars to us Yanks) (known to the prisoners as Chateau Sissinghurst and thus Sissinghurst Castle) and even a poor house. When Sackville-West and Nicolson took over, it was a ruin. Now it is one of hundreds of jewels in the National Trust crown. Vicki was hissing "Sackville-Bagginses!" as we toured, but this was (as she knows) the Sackville-West of Bloomsbury and Virginia Wolff fame.

The Elizabethan tower at Sissinghurst

Sackville-West's study was in the tower; playing was a
recording of her reading her poem "Sissinghurst"

She collected glass, among other things

Part of the estate, from the tower; note the white Kent hops
hoods on a distant barn; for drying hops; for making beer

And a view of part of the gardens; Harold was a straight-line
classicist, she a Romantic; they often clashed over the
gardens' designs

Not the first, and not the last Wisteria
you'll see from us; Vicki loves them

Azaleas in bloom all over...but nothing compared to the
rhododendron riot we'll see in a few more days

Poppies

Irises

And others; it is really earlier spring here; Europe has had
a dreadful long winter and short spring; the good news for
us is that we haven't really missed anything!

One end of the library; they were both literary types, and
this room contained nearly 5,000 books; is someone out
there thinking about the effect of e-books on great house
architecture?

Vita Sackville-West; portrait in the library

A Passage To Freedonia, And In English Too

Actually our last cultural outing on the Continent was on June 3, the morning, at the Auchon super-duper-hyper-mercado in Dunkirk, where we had driven on Sunday, stocking up on some of the French things that would be gone or dear on the next leg of our trip. Wines, cheeses, coffee, UHT cream, sweets and stuff. Particularly wine. Anyhow, we camped the previous evening outside the Auchon (with permission, even), mooching free wifi off the adjoining Flunch restaurant. Later in the day on the 3rd we would ferry to the UK and spend 90 days there, as required by the Schengen Agreement. According to the Agreement, mere tourists from the US can spend only 90 days in the Schengen countries ("Schengenia": most all of the EU, except the UK: "Freedonia"), before having to get out for 90 days. So we will be 90 days in the UK. We did this before, in 2009, and discovered that 90 days was not nearly enough of that wonderful place. And in English too. Sort of. I spent the night of June 2 trying to visualize everything on the left-hand side. I have done this before, several times. It is still terrifying, especially in a LHD vehicle. The UK would be just about perfect, except for the weather, the food, and driving on the "proper" side. And the roads. Don't forget the roads.

Our vessel, the Dover Seaways, Dunkirk to Dover, two hours 

Goodbye, France, goodbye, Continent; see you September 3rd

"White cliffs of Dover?"

Dover Castle above the ferry port

We missed the turn to Dover, as we often do, and wound up
driving the 10 or so miles to Canterbury, which has the most
marvelous camper-stop at its New Dover Road Park and Ride;
room for 20 or so vehicles, water and dump facilities; free
transportation (ten minutes, every ten minutes) to and from
the city; 3 pounds a night ($4.50); we thought we were still
in camper-friendly France; but then a veteran camper told us
what is doubtlessly true, that Canterbury's camper-stop is the
only thing of its kind on the Island

So we spent three nights there, resting, re-acquainting ourselves
with Marks and Spencer's and Tesco, and Oxfam, buying
dongles so we wouldn't have to mooch wifi anymore (for 90
days), studying our guide books, reading, re-provisioning, and
thinking "left"

We'd toured the famous cathedral several
times before, including 2009, so this time we
contented ourselves with attending the
Wednesday Evensong; I studied the
architecture and read the Anglican Articles
of Religion (with letters from Charles I and
Elizabeth I), getting myself back into the
the rhetoric and spirit of the English
protestant reforms; some very strong
language against the "Romish" types

Who still maintain an outpost in this Vatican
of Anglicanism

The next two nights we spent in an idyllic campsite in nearby
Ashford, having the Grey Wanderer's brake pads replaced
and sundry other work done

Well, actually it was in the carpark of the "industrial estate"
where the Mercedes dealership was located; but it was
quiet and afforded yet more rest and preparation for embarking
on our UK tour

More Ghent Art

Next day, Sunday, June 2, we visited Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts (Museum voor Schone Kunsten) for what would be our final cultural outing on the Continent for a while. It is a primarily regional collection, mostly Belgian, 14th century to the present, with much emphasis on modern work. But some major oldies too.

Bosch's Christ Carrying the Cross is one of his last works; he died in 1516, and,
apparently sensing trouble with the religious authorities, ordered his unfinished
works destroyed; there is nothing else quite like this painting I know of, from
either the northern or Italian Renaissance

Christ's image on the Veil of Veronica; there's Veronica holding the veil...

Tormenters...

And another Bosch, his Holy Jerome; with all his attributes,
including the kitty-cat lion; c. 1500

Moving right along, the Younger Breughel's Village Lawyer; like any Breughel,
it rewards close study; it was very popular in its time, later 1500s...he made
some 70 copies

Younger's copy of Elder Breughels' Peasant Dance

Ditto the Peasant Wedding, last seen in Munich

Very large Last Judgment, by Rafael Conche, 1589

Lurid detail; with mirror warning...this could be you!

Henry Lays' Albrecht Durer Visiting Antwerp in 1520

Up closer detail; and there he is

Alfred Stevens' 1887 Mary Magdalene; most
unusual Magdalene so far

Magritte's Manet's Balcony (1950); I could like this guy

And finally, thinking of our 2-year-old grand-daughter, who is moving, we are
told,  beyond her Pointillist phase: Jan Hans Verhas' The Master Painter, 1877