The Road Goes Ever On

Monday, August 26, 2013

Nostell Priory, 1

Nostell Priory is not one of the household names among great houses. But it has much of great interest: its James Paine/Robert Adam Palladian architecture, its Thomas More connection, some art of note, more Chippendale than almost anywhere else--including some Chippendale for servants--some great faux pieces, perhaps the best doll house so far, and, not least, a clock by a maker of historic interest. We spent most of a day there, and I'll have to do two posts.

The estate really was a priory in the middle ages, but after
the Dissolution went through a couple owners before finally
coming to the Winns, textile merchants from London; above
the central bit by Paine, 1730s, the wing in the distance by
Adam; there was supposed to be a matching wing on this side;
but, there isn't

View from the gorgeous curved staircases; the usual
National Trust family activities going on out on the lawn

You walk into the large entry hall admiring all the armor and
family portraits and what-not, and then, at the far end, are
blown away by this gigantic very old family portrait, The
Family of Thomas More, blown away as much by the size
and quality of the painting as by its subject matter

Thomas More was Henry VIII's Chancellor, confidant, etc.,
whom the king finally had executed for not going along with
the Anglican church thing (A Man for All Seasons, etc.); the
painting is signed by Roland Lockey and dated a couple
generations after the scene depicted and it is thought to be
the best of the copies of the original Holbein; it came to
Nostell Priory after one of More's distant grand-daughters
married into the Winn family; here, however, the plot twists
and the whole thing starts to read like a Dan Brown novel...
analysis of the canvas dates it at exactly the time of Holbein,
not 70 years later when Lockey would have been painting; the
suggestion is that this is one of the original Holbeins (thought
to have been lost) which Lockey merely toyed with and
touched up; that's just the painting; the subject matter is more
intriguing (all this explained to us by a docent), rancid with
all sorts of Medieval and other symbolism; among More's
many writings was a history of the reign of Richard III (used
by Shakespeare among others), and implicit in
some of the symbolism is the suggestion that the two
little princes somehow escaped Richard and were in hiding
and were thus still available...a suggestion Henry might
have found, um, threatening; and thus More's execution
might have been due to more than just the disagreement
about the Reformation and Henry being the head of the
church of England; another interpretation is that
the guy identified in the painting as "Thomas Pattison"
really is Henry VIII, and the whole scene depicts a visit
the king made to the More household (in happier times)
to see More's daughters engage in philosophical
disputation...More was an advocate for the education of
women, a novel notion...[photo off the web]

Moving right along, here's merely a Younger Brueghel
Procession to Calvary

Comfy living..Chippendales everywhere you look

A Quentin Massys we've seen before

We saw several of these beds at Chatsworth...called a
Polonnaise, after the style of a Polish skirt...

Faux door on the left; I've gotten some skill in detecting
these; symmmetry, you know

Dining room

Music room

Withdrawing room; the sofas and chairs recently re-covered
to period for a cost of about $50k

Desk in study

One of the 30 Chippendale servant's chairs
at Nostell Priory; visitors may sit on them

In the massive library, a faux panel

Thus, with the door mostly closed

Just an ordinary low chest?

No...conceals the ladder whereby servants
can fetch the books on higher shelves

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Ripon And Cathedral

After Fountains Abbey we spent the night and most of the next day on the canal at Ripon. I walked into town the next day for parts and provisions and happened to pass the cathedral. I never pass a cathedral.

Just outside our window, the Ripon canal

I was going to watch this guy do the lock thing, but then
remembered how tedious and boring it is...

Main street, Ripon, en route to the Sainsbury's...

Ripon cathedral is not one of the famous ones; still worth a
look

The central tower crashed down in the 15th century, taking
most of the nave with it; which was subsequently rebuilt in
a style not exactly matching the Norman chancel

In the locally-carved choir

North-side misericord: Lewis Carroll's father was a canon of
this cathedral, and it is conjectured that this scene, a griffin
or somesuch chasing rabbits down a hole, might have made
an important impression on young Lewis

Extreme close-up of rabbit going down a hole (right)

The hand sticking out of the organ loft made
an impression on me...

Southwest view

Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, 2013

We visited Fountains Abbey in 2009, paying rather more attention to the abbey ruins than to the enormous 18th century water gardens that adjoin and actually encompass it. The family that owned Studley Royal purchased the abbey ruins to be one of their gardens' many follies. It is all World Heritage Site now, owned and administered by the National Trust and English Heritage. And this time we did the water gardens tour with a guide and pretty much skipped the abbey.

In the dress-up room: "O Lord, we beseech thee,
Amen"

Main bits of the abbey ruins; it was England's largest and
most prosperous Cistercian abbey, finally laid low by the
plague, resulting full employment and higher wages,
public contempt for ecclesiastical greed and ostentation;
and then Henry VIII

Location, location, location: a beautiful valley, nice river,
about forty yards down from the quarry

First of the many large water features, the rectangular pond

Nice little temple/folly, the first of several

The huge circular pond

Flanked by the crescent ponds

More temples

More follies, all with fine views

More lakes, ponds, the deer park; alas, the great house
burned down in 1946

Beautiful Victorian church on the grounds
commemorating the loss of a family member

A River Runs Through Durham

Our time in the UK, now coming to an end, has been spent largely in wild-camping (free- or savage-camping, the lovely French term). We did stay in campgrounds when Rebecca and Penelope were with us, and in London, but, otherwise, we've stayed in fewer than a handful of campgrounds these three months. This saves £, that is, $. And many times the sites we have found have been far more scenic or convenient than any campground could be. We have been lucky. But more than lucky, we have benefited from a service our navigatrix found and has utilized, wildcamping.co.uk. It identifies plausible overnight/parking places, nationwide, and you can download them to your satnav, and, better yet, your GoogleEarth, which allows you to look over a spot before driving to it. Anyhow, using this service, we drove right into Durham and found a place on the River Wear, half a mile from the castle and cathedral, a couple £s for the rest of Saturday and then free Sunday until 8AM Monday morn. Naturally, we stayed the two nights.

Important PS: bordering all around an empty carpark adjoining the Radisson is a 3 star blackberry patch. I picked a big quart in just minutes, which we enjoyed with doughnut peaches and cream the next couple nights. The blackberries are coming in now here in the North and the Mids.

And there we are (note new windscreen)

Pretty much ground zero Durham, not a small town, we are right across from
the Radisson Blu, and a couple hundred feet down the river guys are fly-fishing:
Missoula!

OK, the comparisons end there since Missoula does not currently have a castle nor
cathedral; note, however, the River Wear has a dam and weir, the Framwelgate,
extending several hundred feet up the river, creating a large and pretty sort of pond

Very useful for night-time shots

Thus

7AM, Monday morning, right outside our door; Durham's a neat place, even if the
cathedral doesn't allow photography

Durham Cathedral, 2013

Durham was more or less on our way south, and I wanted to see it again, partly in view of my increased knowledge/appreciation of cathedrals and partly for revenge. Durham Cathedral still has a no fotos policy, as it did in 2009. It is nearly unique among the great religious houses of Europe in that respect. I was still bitter, as in 2009. It rained our first few hours in Durham, and, although we were parked not half a mile from the cathedral, we put off going until the clouds parted a bit. That was after 6PM, and, evidently, the cathedral's camera constabulary had gone home. Or maybe to prayers. Whatever. I and a couple dozen others went wild taking interior pix. I post some here merely to spite the administration of this church. Rather more commentary on the cathedral is at the 2009 post, photos for which were grabbed off the web. I am still bitter.