Gongoozling At The Sign Of The Horse And Barge

After Oxford we drove on toward London, stopping at Uxbridge and staying at a pub halt, the Horse and Barge, in Harefield. After dinner, I walked to the canal, a few hundred feet away, to see the action. Britain has an array of 19th and 20th century canals, and this is the Grand Union Canal, the basic spine that runs from London to Birmingham, with numerous off-shoots. In the day, they were all commercial in nature, vying with locomotives and then lorries and then aircraft for the transport of goods. Anyhow, they are entirely recreational now, as elsewhere, although a fair number of people live on their "narrow boats." Watching the very slow goings on canals has become an activity itself, akin to train-spotting or bird-watching. It is called gongoozling, and we have unknowingly been gongoozlers at such places as the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland and the Canal du Midi in France, not to mention the Nordsee/Ostsee Canal in Germany, the Corinth Canal in Greece, and that grand-daddy canal of them all, the Grand Canal in China. Anyhow, it is good to know where to find oneself in the lexicon.

Nice pub, welcoming of motor caravaners for an overnight

The Grand Union Canal; not much going on

Later; I thought these ladies were going to give me a
demonstration of how the locks work; but they turned into
the marina before getting to the bridge and locks

Next morning, we are at the lock, and this woman, a boat owner,
is turning the windlass to open the flood gate

Vicki--no mere gongoozler-- helps to open the big gate

The boat is in, the back gate shut and the lock is filling

Up she rises

The boat owner opens the big gate (Vicki has by now returned
to the camper to watch some paint dry)

The boat is through, 8-10 feet higher, and she is closing the
big gate

They are on their way, and I am now a fully-qualified
gongoozler

Ashmolean

We've been to Oxford several times. In 2009, the Ashmolean was closed for renovations. Vicki thinks we had seen it on earlier visits, but I was too young to remember. We'll be back in Oxford in a week or so with Rebecca, but we thought we'd better see the Ashmolean (again?) before having to share it with our beautiful 2-year-old grand-daughter.

Entrance; it is England's oldest museum, 17th century

The renovation in 2009 was more than that;
here is a museum with a consistent and
thorough emphasis on education and not
merely warehousing of works; above, in a
large and informative section on conservation,
restoration, and such, is a view of what a
Roman statue really looked like

I think the Ashmolean's strengths are more in history and
archaeology--Oxford faculty dug up much of the eastern
Mediterranean, Egypt and such--but the paintings
collection is of interest too; here is Ucello's intriguing 1472
Hunt in the Forest, totally secular, mixed oil and tempera
on both canvas and panel; how transitional can you get?

Last bust of Michelangelo

Titan's Giacomo Doria

Reynolds' George, Earl of Harcourt, and wife Elizabeth, and
brother George

A frowny-faced Franz Hals portrait of a woman

A nice Courbet pre-impressionist landscape

There were lots of others...Poussain, Tintoretto, van Dyck,
et al., but I can never resist a Claude Lorrain, here, his
Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia

Now in the Egyptology section, Vicki admiring
the full frontal pose of the Koptos sculptures,
3300 BC, said to be the oldest such (nevermind
the paleolithic friezes and sculptures we've seen
elsewhere)

Tomb siding stolen from somewhere in Egypt (and you
wonder why they hate us...)

Nice mummy

Nice jar (sleeps two)

The Ashmolean has no Turners--not surprisingly: he was the
consummate commoner--but does display four of his works,
on loan (from an alum, presumably); here, I thought I'd end
with his Oxford, View of High Street

Upton House

The house goes back a few centuries but is best known for its twentieth-century owners, Lords and Ladies Bearsted, aka Shell Oil, who enlarged and renovated, re-did the gardens, and bought some art.

Upton House, garden side

A number of nice small Steens in the long gallery

And an obligatory Canaletto

Sir Josh Reynolds' Lord and Lady Ely

In the big bedroom, 1920s home entertainment center

And here, and the next few, the trademark of
this house, the art deco bath, done in aluminum
leaf...

Yes,aluminum leaf

More precious aluminum leaf

Art deco toilet?

I guess it was in the contract that Shell Oil be glorified in
the displays

Elder Breughel's Dormition of Mary; barely recognizable as
a Breughel

A teeniny El Greco

And a Bosch Adoration, amply authenticated, but hardly
comparable to the similar one in the Prado

Vicki scrutinizes the Bosch, just to be sure

The garden is basically in a canyon, England's largest HaHa,
but is pleasant to look at

The family live in a "modern" mansion next door and raise
racing horses; above, an aristocratic horse sneers our way

The gardens from on low

Hidcote Garden

After Dover's Hill, we drove on another, oh, maybe 10 miles, to our next site, Hidcote Garden. The garden is the century-old work of one man, Major Lawrence Johnston, an American-turned-Brit, who traveled widely, both in the military and out, in search of plant species to populate his English gardens. Hidcote Garden is largely a set of outdoor "rooms" each a distinct garden. It was a sunny, warm Sunday afternoon and the place was very nearly crowded.

In the modest "museum" of Johnston's life--a garden shed

A globe showing some of his travels

Document concerning his gift of Hidcote to
the National Trust; he estimated five full-time
gardeners would be needed; the Trust in fact
employs 13 here, plus part-timers, and a small
army of devoted volunteers; it is an amazing
organization

HaHa, horse, statue 

Wildflowers in one of the forested areas

Many species we've seen before, and some we haven't

Artsy pose

One of the water rooms

Another--for us--exotic

Beauty everywhere

Tree sculpture?

In addition to the croquet, Hidcote also has a tennis court
available to visitors (this was the last day of Wimbledon)

And, not least, an award-winning loo