July 2020 – A Traveling Fool

July 26, 2020

The Crawleys & the Churchills

The fictional Crawleys of Downton Abbey lived in Yorkshire. But the settings used for the series weren’t quite so far north. Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey), which is open at limited times to the public, is in Hampshire. Byfleet Manor (the Dower House) is in Surrey. Many of the other locations — Cogges Farm (Yew Tree Farm), Bampton (the village), and several other locations – are in Oxfordshire. I wasn’t able to book a tour to Highclere Castle for the time I would be in London, but I could get a tour to the Oxfordshire series locations plus Blenheim Palace (home of the Churchills).

This was another small group tour through a group called International Friends. There were three of us on the tour. We started with Cogges Farm, at one time a real farm, which stood in for Yew Tree Farm. Yew Tree Farm was where Edith arranged for her daughter, Marigold, to live. Later she admitted to her family who Marigold was and took her to Downton. We could see the interior of the house that was used as well as the exterior.

The farm is now a farm museum. The house was begun in the 13^th century and was enlarged in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. There are still chickens, pig, and goats. The baby goats were leaping and dancing until I pulled out my video camera. Then they stood still and posed. That made me laugh.

Bampton was used as the village for the Grantham Estate. The village has been settled since the Iron Age and Roman times. It is in the Doomesday Book, which William the Conqueror commissioned in 1086.

St Mary’s Church was used for St Michael and All Angels. All of the weddings, near weddings, and funerals were shot at that church. We could go inside there too. Parts of the church date back to the 10^th century. It has been added to and refurbished over the centuries, ending in the mid-19^th century.

The Old Rectory was Isobel Crawley’s house. It was just across the road from the church. Various other Bampton buildings were used for the Grantham Arms pub and the Dog & Duck pub. Another house in the village was Mr Mosley’s house (number 2 in the photo).

The Downton Fair was held in the village square and the Downton Cottage Hospital was located in the Public Library, which was originally a schoolhouse in the 1650s. A small gift shop was in the building when I visited. I bought a couple of Downton Abbey items for a couple of my friends who were big fans of the show.

When we left Bampton, we went to Shilton to see the 18^th century hump-backed bridge and the ford across the Shill Brook. The building there was the Old Forge, which was turned into the Red Lion Pub, where Mr Bates worked when he left the Abbey.

At Swinbrook, a real inn was used as the Swan Inn where Lady Sybil and Branson stayed when they tried to elope. They were persuaded to return to Downton while at the Inn.

We ended the Downton Abbey portion of the tour and made our way to Bladen. In the churchyard of St Martin’s Parish church are several members of the Churchill family. Although most of the actual Dukes and Duchesses were buried in the chapel at Blenheim Palace, other members of the family, including Winston Churchill and his wife, are at Bladen. We paid our respects and took a few photos before heading to nearby Woodstock for lunch.

After lunch we spent several hours at Blenheim Palace. Queen Anne granted the land and provided some of the funding for the palace as a reward to John Churchill, 1^st Duke of Marlborough, after his victory at the 1704 Battle of Blenheim.

Once again I had quite a bit of time to explore what I wanted to explore at Blenheim. I started with the exhibit on Winston Churchill, which included the room in which he was born. Winston’s father was a younger son of the 7^th Duke and so would not become a Duke himself. Lord Randolph Churchill was elected as the Conservative MP from Woodstock and made his mark as a statesman.

I then turned my focus to the State Rooms, of which there are many open to the public. Photography was allowed in them all. One of the most opulent, in my opinion, was the dining room (which they called the Saloon). I had seen photos of that room many years ago as a child, so I loved being able to see the actual room in person.

Among my many photos, is one of the room that contains the tapestry showing the 1^st Duke at the Battle of Blenheim. The library is another enormous room with vast portraits and paintings, a gigantic pipe organ, and a statue of Queen Anne with an inscription on its base from the 1^st Duchess, Sarah, about her friendship with the Queen.

When I left the State Rooms, I visited the chapel, where most of the Dukes and Duchesses were buried. The 1^st Duke naturally had a very fancy tomb. In conversation with one of the staff, I discovered that the private rooms of the current Duke and his family were going to be open to tour later that afternoon. I had the time, so I bought a ticket and then went to take a good look at the gardens until it was time to view the private rooms. It is only on very rare occasions that those rooms are open to the public.

The gardens were as amazing and opulent as the State Rooms had been. The design of the Water Terrace was an attempt to rival Versailles. I think they did it.

The private family quarters were fascinating to see. Most places, the only time you get to see the private quarters is when the family no longer lives there and the castle/ palace/ grand house is under the care of some sort of Trust. The Spencer-Churchill family is definitely in residence with the 12^th Duke in charge. Yes, the Spencer part is Princess Diana’s family.

We were only allowed in as a small group and not allowed to take photos at all. That was fine. It was just fun to see where the family actually lived. They had a wing. The rooms were much more normal in size and not as lavish as the State Rooms. It was still obviously the home of someone with great wealth. In some of the bedrooms, it struck me as odd to see an antique, grand four-posted bed with a canopy next to a large flat-screen television. Computers sat on ornate, antique desks. I was glad I had time to see it all.

Next time – Banqueting House, Westminster Abbey & Temple Church back in London

July 19, 2020

A Day at Windsor Castle & Hampton Court Palace – Part 2

Hampton Court Palace had audio guides and costumed interpreters. The audio guide was divided up by the different parts of the palace, so I could decide where I wanted to spend my time and how much time I wanted to spend there.

When I had been there before in 1991, as part of the cattle herd, the person leading the tour had spent limited time in the Henry VIII portions of the palace and most of his time in the William & Mary rooms in the part of the palace that had been redone by Sir Christopher Wren. I think he favored that period. We were shown the Tudor Kitchens almost as an afterthought. So this time I decided to concentrate most of my time on Henry VIII’s apartments.

The palace was originally built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1515. I was a large and lavish palace where the king stayed in the state rooms when he visited. In 1529, Wolsey failed to secure an annulment of the king’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. As a result, the Cardinal lost favor with Henry and gave his palace to him to try to regain favor. It didn’t quite work out that way and Wolsey died just two years later. But Henry had a magnificent palace that he set out to enlarge and turn into his primary residence.

Entering through the Tudor Great Gatehouse, I crossed the Base Court and entered a door in a corner to my far left. With my map and audio guide in hand, I entered the second gatehouse, called Anne Boleyn’s Gate. Her rooms above the gate were still being worked on when she was taken to the Tower of London and executed. I then entered the palace just inside of the Clock Court and climbed the stairs.

The first room I encountered was the Great Hall. Anne Boleyn and Henry’s entwined initials were carved on the wooden screen at the end of the hall and their coats of arms on the hammerbeam ceiling (Henry was going for a medieval feel). The original tapestries that hung in the hall when Henry lived there were hanging in the hall when I was there. They are known as the Abraham Tapestries, with scenes from the life of Abraham from the Bible.

Of Henry’s six wives, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr are most associated with the palace. The Great Watching Chamber, which was where courtiers would wait to see Henry, was built to honor Jane Seymour. She was the only one of Henry’s wives to produce a male heir and died just two weeks later of complications having to do with the birth. Her heart and lungs were in a lead box behind the altar in the chapel at Hampton Court (no photography was allowed in that one room). The rest of her was buried with Henry at Windsor Castle.

Henry’s last wife, Catherine Parr, was married to him in a small room near the chapel. She survived Henry by roughly a year, dying from complications of childbirth after giving birth to a daughter by the man she married after Henry’s death.

It is Catherine Howard who is most associated with the palace because of a legend that she still haunts the place. Rumors of her having been a wild child (being only about 14 or 15 when Henry married her) reached the king when they had not been married terribly long (about a year maybe). He dismissed it at first. But then they found and tortured a few of the males reportedly involved and one confessed. He was beheaded as his reward.

Things were further complicated when it was discovered that Catherine had been carrying on an affair with Thomas Culpeper, one of Henry’s courtiers and a distance cousin of Catherine’s. Lady Rochford, who was Jane Boleyn, married to Anne Boleyn’s brother, was found to have been aiding in the affair.

Culpeper was beheaded. He and the other fella had their heads displayed on spikes on London Bridge. Lady Rochford told all upon fear of torture. She ended up being beheaded along with Catherine. They were buried together in the chapel at the Tower of London, next to Anne Boleyn (who was also Catherine’s cousin).

After she was captured and imprisoned at Hampton Court (before being sent to the Tower), Catherine broke free and ran screaming down the Long Gallery towards the Chapel, believing Henry was there and wanting to beg him for mercy. She was captured before she could reach the chapel. People sometimes see her and sometimes hear her in what has been nicknamed the Haunted Gallery. Many people experience a somewhat creepy feeling there.

The Great Watching Chamber is next to the Great Hall. After spending some time in there, I went into the Processional Gallery. I was alone and there were some benches, so I sat down to get caught up with the audio guide. I kept putting it on pause to take photos and had gotten behind.

As I was sitting there listening, I saw some interesting-looking shoes with some somewhat heavy legs wearing white stockings standing in them. “Have you seen Thomas Culpeper?” the voice belonging to the shoes, legs and stockings barked. I looked up and saw Henry VIII looking down at me. He had a couple other people with him. “No Sir,” I responded, but didn’t think to curtsy. He headed off with the other two in the direction of the Great Watching Chamber and Great Hall. This was how I discovered that they had costumed interpreters at Hampton Court Palace. Cool! This will be fun!

Shortly after he left, a woman in Tudor dress came and sat on the bench across from me. We were the only two people in gallery. I abandoned my audio guide, turning it off and putting it away. “Hello,” I said to her. I soon discovered that she was Lady Rochford (she had been Lady in Waiting to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard). I asked her who was queen to see where we were in history at the moment. The queen was Catherine Howard. Oh goody! Truly interesting times.

While Lady Rochford and I were talking, a gentleman came along who revealed himself to be Thomas Culpeper. I let him know that the king was looking for him. He asked which way he went and headed off in the opposite direction. He soon returned and the three of us talked about court gossip and Catherine’s naivety (didn’t learn a thing from her cousin, Anne’s experience) for a while just inside of the Haunted Gallery.

I got a photo of the lady playing Lady Rochford while we were in the Processional Gallery and took one of the gent playing Thomas Culpeper as he retreated down the Haunted Gallery. I headed down the Haunted Gallery shortly afterwards, checking out the room where Henry had married Catherine Parr and the chapel on the way. Then I proceeded down the stairs and out into the Clock Court where I photographed the exterior of the Great Hall. My next focus was the Tudor Kitchens.

To get to the Tudor Kitchens, I needed to go through an undercroft where I discovered a tea shop. Perfect timing. I used their facilities and got some refreshment before heading outside again to follow the maze of alleys to the kitchens where 200 cooks and other servants labored to create 800 meals per day for Henry and his court. The photo with the guy in the long, red coat walking down the alley ahead of me includes a doorway (third from the left) where a ghost has also been spotted.

The kitchen itself is enormous plus there are several other rooms to store plates, utensils, and serving platters and bowls; storage for beer; for wine; several larders; a butchers; a bakery; offices. I explored it all.

At the gift shop, back near where we were to meet the tour coach, I bought Christmas ornaments of Henry and all six wives. I also got an ornament of Hampton Court Palace.

A couple extras:

Historian Lucy Worsley, who you may have seen in several shows on PBS (including a series on Henry and his wives), has her offices at Hampton Court.
Hampton Court Palace was where the meeting took place that led to the creation of the King James Bible.

Next time – I visit the Crawleys and the Churchills at some of the Downton Abbey filming locations and Blenheim Palace

July 12, 2020

A Day at Windsor Castle & Hampton Court Palace – Part 1

My first day trip out of London didn’t go too far out. In fact, Hampton Court is in a London suburb, so not even officially outside of London for that portion of the day.

Our tour guide was impeccably dressed, perfectly coiffed, and closely shaved except for the handlebar mustache which he frequently stroked (when he wasn’t checking on the perfection of his hair, which never moved one millimeter). He had a Hungarian accent (sounding somewhat like Bela Lugosi) and referred to us all as “my lovelies”.

He didn’t have much to do. At Windsor, once we parked the coach (a large one that could hold about 45 people; he was not driving) in the car park, he led us through the town and to the castle, gave us our tickets , told us when to be back on the coach and set us free for about two hours. At Hampton Court Palace, it was pretty much the same. The coach dropped us off; he told us what time to meet back there; and then we were on our own for about three hours. I guess his job was just to look handsome and perfect and make sure he didn’t lose anybody (he did do a head count when we were back on the coach before signaling the driver that we could leave).

I have to say that I was relieved that we weren’t going to be herded around from room to room in a crowd and have to strain to hear what was being said. Many years ago when Mom and I had been to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace before, that had been the case. At Windsor, no photos are allowed inside, so being in the middle of a throng of people wasn’t as bad as at Hampton Court. There photos were allowed and masses of people could make taking decent ones difficult.

Before leaving for Windsor, we stopped in South Kensington by the Royal Albert Hall. This is a round concert hall that can seat over 5,000. It was opened in 1871 as part of a memorial to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who had died about ten years earlier. The other part of the memorial is just across the street from the hall in Kensington Gardens and is called the Albert Memorial.

Around one of the sides of the Albert Memorial is a lovely building that was used as Mister Selfridge’s house in the TV series “Mister Selfridge”. The series was about the Selfridge & Company department store in London.

At Windsor, the Queen was in residence, so security was tight. The castle was originally built in the 11^th century by William the Conqueror and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. Mom and I had been there in 1991 before the enormous fire of 1992. I was very interested in seeing how everything had been restored. Being a fan of dolls houses however, I stopped off to see Queen Mary’s Dollhouse first. Then I headed upstairs to the State Rooms.

Each room had a sign telling about the room. The ones which had been damaged by the fire also had photos of the damage so we could see how much work needed to be done to get the room back to what it had been before. They had staff in each room to answer any questions that people might have. The main thing was that I could take my time and really see what each room was about. My previous visit had all been a blur of glimpses of the rooms through the crowds.

One of the rooms that had been badly damaged in the fire was Saint George’s Hall, which is essentially the Great Hall. The room is enormous and the entire roof had collapsed. The discovery was made that the ceiling had been a false one and the room originally had a much higher and grander ceiling. The decision was made not to restore the hall entirely as it was, but to take it back to the medieval period when the original ceiling had been visible. Wow! The result was amazing!

I had quite a chat with a staff member who was just inside when I walked in and my jaw dropped. She walked over to me as I was saying “wow!” out loud. So we talked about how we both like the hall so much better now, despite the fact that it was beautiful and impressive before the fire. She then asked if I knew who the monarchs were whose paintings were on the wall. I responded by starting to name them. We both laughed when I said, “then all the Georges.” The first painting in the line was of James I, so I hadn’t named them all from William the Conqueror – just the Stuarts.

Although I couldn’t take any photos and I usually use only photos I took myself in this blog, I have included here three photos of Saint George’s Hall that were taken by others to show what the hall looked like before the fire, with the fire damage, and after restoration.

When I got back outside, the Queen’s Band was playing. I managed to take video and a photo while listening. This was an added benefit of being there while the Queen was in residence.

St George’s Chapel also doesn’t allow photography inside. There was a black marble slab in the middle of the aisle, which you might have seen if you watched the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan. The slab says that, in a vault beneath it, are the remains of Jane Seymour (Henry VIII’s third wife, who died shortly after giving birth to his only son, Edward), Henry VIII, Charles I, and an infant of Queen Anne.

Poor Queen Anne had 18 children die. Just the one stillborn child was buried at Windsor. All of the others were buried at Westminster Abbey. Some were miscarriages, some still births, some died while still infants. Only one made it out of infancy as far as age eleven. Imagine.

I had lunch at the Victorian train station. They had several cafes and sandwich shops to choose from. Then I made my way back to the car park via a bridge from the railway station over the train tracks. Our tour guide was very happy to see all of his lovelies back to the coach on time and we set off for Hampton Court.

July 5, 2020

Train from Edinburgh to London & Boat Ride to Greenwich

The Virgin Trains East Coast train from Edinburgh’s Waverly Station to London’s Kings Cross Station was leaving at 10:00am. After having breakfast and checking out of the hotel, I asked the Doorman on duty about the best way to get from the hotel to the train station. Although it was next door, there was a shopping mall in between. Should I go through the mall? Should I go past the mall and around the corner? He started telling me the way to get there (neither of those two) and then decided he would just take me there himself.

He told the other Doorman on duty inside, took hold of my bags, and escorted me to just past the mall entrance next to the hotel to some steps to the roof of the mall. That was a surprise. When we got to the end of the mall roof near the station, there was an elevator. This took us down into the train station. My new friend (he was actually from Romania – a combination Romanian and Scottish accent is quite delightful) led us to the Departures board, found the train I would be riding, and then took me and my bags to another elevator.

That elevator took us to where the trains themselves were waiting. He continued to escort me all the way to the train. There he made sure I got my larger bag checked. I was traveling First Class (I had gotten a great deal there too). In Standard you keep your bags and try to find a place to put them, which may or may not be near you. Once the bag was checked, he turned me over to the First Class Conductor. Needless to say, I gave the Doorman a good tip.

I had booked a single seat that was at a table. I placed my coat in the rack above me, the small bag on the floor under the table, and settled in. The trip took four hours, stopping at various towns and cities along the way. Lunch was served, so I wasn’t hungry when I arrived at my destination.

Once in London, I checked into my hotel. It was a hotel I used to stay in with Mom on many trips. But it had recently undergone a total refurbishment, gained another star, and decided that their focus would be on the business traveler. I realized on this trip that it was no longer the hotel for me.

The next morning after I arrived, I walked down The Strand to take the boat from Westminster Pier to Greenwich. En route I took a photo of the Admiralty Arch with the UK flags lining The Mall beyond the arch. As I reached Westminster Pier, I took a photo of the statue of Boudica.

Boudica was queen of the Iceni tribe of Celtic Briton who led a revolt against the Romans in about 61 AD. Her husband, the king had died, leaving his kingdom split between his two daughters and the Roman Empire. His will was ignored. His daughters were raped. His widow publicly flogged.

Boudica raised an army and went after the Romans in three cities – Verulamium (now St Albans), Camulodunum (now Colchester), and Londinium (now London). It is said that roughly 70,000 to 80,000 Romans and British were killed. All three cities were burned. London was where the Ninth Legion met Boudica’s troops and lost. But, there were way more Romans and they ultimately defeated the Britons.

Once on the boat, I took a photo of the London Eye before going inside. It was starting to look like it was going to rain. All along the boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich, I took as many photos as I could on the side of the boat where I sat. Humorous commentary was given onboard as various landmarks on either side of the boat were pointed out. I planned to sit on the other side on the way back.

As we glided beneath the Tower Bridge, I shot several photos as that bridge is a favorite of mine. I have included a photo with the modern building The Shard framed between the towers of the bridge.

Beyond both the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge and on the same side of the Thames as the Tower of London was the Prospect of Whitby. This was the oldest pub on the river, dating to about 1520. The current building is not original as it had a fire and was rebuilt in the early 19^th century. The only part that is original is the stone floor.

A little further along, in the area known as Limehouse, is the Grapes, where Charles Dickens lived for a time in about 1820. The building dates from the 1720s. Another pub dating from 1583 was on the same site before it. The pub is currently owned by a trio of people including actor Ian McKellen. He lives a little further along the river near Canary Wharf.

When we reached Greenwich Pier, I immediately headed for the Royal Observatory. Mom and I had been to Greenwich on our first visit to London back in 1983, but had not made it up to the Observatory. We had spent most of our time there at the Queen’s House (built 1616-1635), which houses part of the National Maritime Museum.

The climb to the Observatory is a steep one and I knew it would take time. I often will explore whatever is the farthest or the most difficult to get to first when I am operating on my own agenda instead of someone else’s. There was a less steep, but longer walk that sort of wound around the hill. I decided to take that route up and the super steep route down.

The Royal Observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II and built by Sir Christopher Wren (the same guy who built St Paul’s Cathedral). The Royal Observatory is home to Greenwich Mean Time (from which all time around the world originates) and the Prime Meridian (zero meridian from which will all distances around the world are measured).

People like to get the cheesy photo with one foot on each side of the meridian line. I took an equally cheesy photo of my feet straddling the line – one in the eastern hemisphere and one in the western.

Once I had explored the building and the exhibits inside, took my feet photo, and spent as much time as I wanted up there, I headed back down, walking through the park that surrounds the space, and found a pub in which to have lunch. The Greenwich Tavern had the usual traditional pub fare, such as fish and chips, which was what I ordered, plus a half pint of cider.

Next came the Royal Naval College, created in the 19^th century in a building built in the 17^th century by Sir Christopher Wren as Greenwich Hospital, a home for retired sailors.

There are several connections between Greenwich and Admiral Horatio Nelson. He lied in state in the Painted Hall at what became the Royal Naval College before his funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral. Several items belonging to him, including the uniform he was wearing at the Battle of Trafalgar, are housed in the National Maritime Museum in the Queen’s House.

The Chapel in the Royal Naval College has, near the entrance, a memorial to Thomas Hardy, Captain of the HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar (not the novelist). He was also a close friend of Nelson’s, and was with him when he died on the Victory after being shot by a French Sharpshooter. Hardy was a Governor of Greenwich Hospital near the end of his career.

The Cutty Sark was built in Scotland in 1869 as a tea clipper to China. It was later involved in the wool trade to Australia. The whiskey was named after the ship, which went into dry dock at Greenwich in 1954. Mom and I had toured the ship back in 1983. It suffered a pretty nasty fire in 2007 and was restored in 2012.

The name Cutty Sark comes from the nickname of the witch who chased Tam O’Shanter in Robert Burn’s 1791 poem. The ship was an extremely fast one back in its day. The restoration allows for visitors to seen beneath the ship as well and inside and on deck. I love ships, especially old ones, and I enjoyed getting to explore this one a second time.

On the way back to Westminster Pier, the rain came down really hard, making it impossible for me to take any photos beyond shortly after leaving Greenwich. My last photo shared here is of the Mayflower Pub in Rotherhithe.

In July of 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Rotherhithe to pick up more passengers in Southhampton and Plymouth, England, before sailing to what became Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Mayflower Pub claims to be at the site in Rotherhithe from which the Mayflower sailed. Whether or not that is true is up to discussion.

Back at Westminster Pier, the rain had stopped. As I walked up Whitehall towards The Strand, I took a photo near Banqueting House. Right after that, I saw that a ceremony was taking place at Horseguards Parade and crossed over to that side of the street to take a look. A photo is included here.

My last shot before heading up The Strand to my hotel was of Trafalgar Square, with the statue of Admiral Nelson on top of Nelson’s Column. The statue in front of the column is of King Charles I. The building seen behind the column with a dome is the National Gallery.

Next time – a day at Windsor Castle & Hampton Court Palace