A La Ronde

Cousins Mary and Jane Parminter bucked quite a few trends, going on a ten-year Grand Tour in the late 18th century, seemingly oblivious to the mores of the time and such, not to mention wars, revolutions, and assorted other upheavals going on in Europe. When they returned, they wanted to build a house to display all their ten years' travels' souvenirs and mementos. (This was before the age of refrigerator magnets; before the age of refrigerators, too). Anyhow, when visiting Ravenna, they were greatly impressed by the cathedral of San Vitale, as were we, and also Charlemagne, but that's another story, and later resolved to build an octagonal display house; actually sixteen-sided. And they called it "A La Ronde." They apparently had their own ideas about geometry as well. Anyhow, the house and its contents came at length to the Trust some years back, and it is one of the more popular if quirky Great Houses.

Sixteen-sided A La Ronde; not the diamond-shaped windows

The Parminters' print of San Vitale

One of the bedrooms; many of the furnishings are of a later date, those of a later
occupant

Of course, a sixteen-sided house makes for some odd-sized rooms;
 they collected prints, paintings, books, and

Mostly they collected shells...predating a serious Victorian
hobby of collecting fossils and such

Yes, mostly they collected shells

And did interesting things with them

Indeed, the entire top-most floor is a great octagonal display of shells

Peeking upstairs towards it

It's not on the tour--too fragile--but there's a 360 degree computer tour available...

More comfy rooms

Closer-up of a Monkey Puzzle tree outside

View from the house of the estuary of the River Exe, and the town of Exmouth
below (Exeter further up the estuary)

Durdle Door

Our next destination was the coast and the Durdle Door scenic area. Durdle Door itself is a sea arch set amidst alternating cliffs and coves. It's quite attractive though, as one might expect, fairly over-run with visitors. And no comparison with Etretat, scenically, nor historically. Again, I'll just post some pix. One is of one of the islands off the coast, Portland, I think. Another is of some school kids, en field trip, playing off one of the rocks, in wet-suits, etc. Brave teachers. At the end is a coastal repast I concocted from the little seafood market on the main cove: mussels, scallops, cockles, and samphire, all in a garlic/butter/wine sauce. Samphire, the veggie, is pretty rare--collected from amongst the rocks and cliffs. Not at Tesco.

Military Escort

So we were parked, entirely legally, behind the National Trust
visitor center, down the hill from Corfe Castle, a pretty
incredible site at which to spend the night, we thought

When next morning, I heard voices (not the usual voices),
soft but many...and, as the light grew, I looked out the window
to see

A full platoon or so of Royal Army, in fairly full gear, I think

Including weapons; good grief! I thought, is it a national
crime to overnight in a National Trust parking lot? Are they
here to apprehend us? Is this an international incident?

At length, they moved on...hopefully to a mere training hike in
the hills on a beautiful morning

We drove on to find we were indeed in military country

And even considered sticking around for the Tankfest

Thus; but ultimately we decided to carry on; and keep calm

Corfe Castle Town

En route to Corfe, a rhododendron-lined road...pretty
incredible...notice, additionally, I am driving on the left

Punishment for too many blog posts

View of pretty Corfe town from the (slighted) castle

We walked in the town a bit, looking mostly at its nice old Norman church

Thus

In the church, these are the symbols, we read, that permit prayer for a crusader
who has been killed in action (so to speak); that is, if one of your guys was
killed on crusade and thus buried (or whatever) elsewhere, then you could still
pray for him (her), on this home site, as if he (she) were actually here (home)
(as if...) (whatever)

Corfe is also the home of, it is said, England's smallest town hall; also serves as
town museum

Corfe Castle

The next home and garden was Corfe Castle, down very close to the coast, established originally by William the Conqueror, but later acquired by the powerful Bankes family. They were loyal to the king, Charles I, in the Civil War, and stoutly defended Corfe Castle, succumbing only to trickery by the low-life Parliamentarians. After the war was over, the king beheaded, etc., the victors "slighted" Corfe, as with so many other monuments that would have come in handy in this age of travel and tourism. It's still there, though, bits of it, and certainly takes less time to tour than it would have had it not been slighted. Anyhow, after the Parliamentarians rendered Corfe uninhabitable, the Bankes moved on, establishing Kingston Lacy. I'll just let the pix below speak for themselves: this is what an 11th-12th century castle would look like if it were blown up in the mid-17th century (except for the Victorian choo-choo I was going to video for Penelope; but didn't).

Badbury Rings

The Badbury Rings are an iron-age hill-fort on the Kingston Lacy estate. We rarely pass up a good iron-age hill-fort...

Approaching Badbury Rings on foot; you'd think it just another hill, unless you
noticed the giant terracing

Thus; pre-Roman; after the Romans took over, the hill-fort village declined, the
population moving to a new town nearby' on the Stour

Entering the ditch and ramparts 

Summit marker, I guess; it's in the middle of the now-forested hill-fort, useless
to anyone that doesn't have X-ray vision

Walking along the top rampart; I would guess the ditch is twenty feet deep; and
then there are two more ditches and two more ramparts; very steep too; designed
to discourage/impede would-be attackers

The immediate area has been inhabited some 6,000 years, as attested by these
nearby mounds; well, as you can see, Crebain out of Dunland were massing--
spies of Saruman!--so we had to move on to the next home and garden