Wakehurst Place

After Bateman's we set course for Wakehurst Place, another home and garden--mostly garden--and wound up spending the night in the caravan section of the cattle and sheep division of the South of England Show. Sort of a state fair. Really big. It's a long story. Anyhow, next morning we visited Wakehurst Place, which is the "country" site of Kew Gardens, the Royal Botanic Gardens. I think I'll let the pix narrate themselves. It is a gorgeous place, and on a Sunday morning, there were few people with whom to share it.

Mill At Bateman's

Kipling harnessed the river Dudwell for use generating electricity, but the 17th century mill on the property has been restored now to its original use. It was in full operation when we visited on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I have never seen a working mill and enjoyed this one so much I even did a brief video for Penelope.

It's quite simple, really; water stored in the
pond is diverted to turn the really big wheel

Which, through a succession of wheels and gears (all of
them of wood)(and not very simple, really) turns the millstones

The unground grain goes in here

And comes out, all ground up, flour, here, on the floor below;
and that's how they make bread; wait, no, that's the baker;
anyhow, the major take-away is to always disengage the
clutch when there is no grain being ground: with no grain,
the stones get into serious friction, which can cause fires,
which are especially unwanted in flour mills

And, of course, there were blooming rhodos all over the
place, this on the path from the mill back to the house

Bateman's

Deep in the Sussex Weald lies Bateman's, a 1634 Jacobean house whose chief claim to fame was its ownership by Rudyard Kipling from 1902 to 1936, when he died. The house stayed in the family for some more years. Kipling and his wife made many improvements to the house and grounds, of course, but its chief interest lies simply in its association with him.

Bateman's; beautiful sandstone

Looking from the pond--which Kipling created using some of
his Nobel Prize money--to the side of the house

Obligatory wisteria

Drawing room

Lots of India stuff, as one might expect

Thus (done by K's father)

And thus

Painting of Kipling in the stairway to the 2nd
floor

His study; the desk left pretty much as he outfitted it; crumpled
drafts in bin

Vicki and one of the docents in the study

More India

1907 Nobel Prize for Literature

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...