Exbury, 1

Friends Howard and Jenni put us on to Exbury when we asked them about notable gardens in their area apart from the National Trust houses and gardens we normally visit. "Notable" hardly does justice to Exbury, and, apart from the huge national botanical gardens we have visited, it is the best garden we have yet seen. A word or two of explanation are in order. We are rhododendron fans and are happiest in the spring in any of the British gardens that have incorporated them. Lionel Rothschild, the founder of Exbury, was a rhododendron aficionado and fashioned this vast landscape to feature his favorite plants; sparing no expense, too.  Yes, we know that British garden purists don't share our preferences. But we're neither gardeners nor garden connoisseurs; we just know what we like. So prepare to see a whole lot of rhododendrons in this and succeeding posts...in vistas, lanes, trails, rooms, water features, and so on...

Champion trees here and there too

Knole, 2022

We'd visited Knole in 2009 and again in 2013, but thought it was worth another try. In past years, there was a "no fotos!" policy, but, happily, that has now been lifted. As explained in the previous posts, Knole is important for a several reasons. It is the major repository of Stuart furniture, art, and so forth, and some Tudor, mainly because its owner at the time was chamberlain to William and Mary and got first call on all the stuff they didn't want from the previous regimes. The house is huge--though the tour visits only a smidgeon of it--a "calendar" house, with 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances, etc., originally built for the archbishops of Canterbury but later acquired by Henry VIII when he became head of the C of E. His daughter Elizabeth I gave Knole to the Sackvilles, who are still there. The house also figures in the writings of Vita Sackville-West--she was raised there--and Virginia Woolf.

Main entrance

Helpful model #11,306

Entrance to main hall

Main hall and family portraits

Beautifully carved 16th century screen

Grand staircase

Long portrait gallery

Probably history's most famous red-head

Thomas More

William Cecil, Elizabeth's principal advisor in
her earlier years

Erasmus

Walsingham, Elizabeth's spy-master and fixer

Melancthon, Luther and some other guy; probably not from the
Stuarts' private collection

Back 40

James II state bed, 1688; last of the Stuarts, exiled to facilitate
the Glorious Revolution

16th century attire fit for a king; much gold
thread

A glimpse into the construction of the place

Olympic pool

Moving right along, we are now looking at furniture
and paintings collected by the Sackvilles in later
times...here, a portrait done by Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun;
she got around...

Coronation robe on display; much was out in anticipation of
Elizabeth II's Jubilee...coming up very shortly

Josh Reynolds selfie

In another long hall, painted-in copies of Rafael's Sistine cartoons
(original cartoons at the V&A; actual tapestries at the Sistine
Chapel, rarely displayed)

Finally, the King's Room (it was wise to maintain and
appropriately outfit a king's room, to be used by no one else,
just in case the monarch popped in for a visit one day)

Among the solid silver furniture in the King's Room

Chiddingstone

May 11th we decamped--de-Airbnb'd--and drove through more of darkest Kent and Sussex to Chiddingstone, which the National Trust presents as England's only extant Tudor village, mid-15th century. 

Blue bells along the way

A tree down and debris in the road--could be spring-time
in the Rockies in Montana

It's rather a small place, Chiddingstone...a row of

Tudor buildings, a church, and, beyond, a fortified

residence

We were due to see Knole later in the day, so passed on Chiddingstone
Castle

Tudor pavement?

From the village we walked the few hundred meters out to the

Chiding stone itself...thought to be a place of judgment...chiding...

get it?

The Chiding Stone

Yours truly, 75 years old, suffering from Mal de
Debarquement syndrome, dizzily chiding myself for
doing this and resolving not to climb such things again

The view

On the way to Knole, more darkest Kent and Sussex