Petworth House

Petworth House is a late 17th century mansion rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset. It's set in a beautiful deer park and was landscaped by 'Capability' Brown. This country house is home to world famous paintings and sculpture by Turner, Van Dyck, Reynolds and Blake.

just a summer house!

Like some of these other stately homes, this one is still inhabited by Lord and Lady Egremont. Not a bad place to live.......
The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy, the 13th century chapel is still standing with its very impressive ceiling.
Some of the treasures.....

A segment of a Turner

Back to Gosport

Just when I thought I had escaped this place and all it's interesting habits, I find myself back for a 2 night stay!
We've returned to say goodbye to Elsie, John's 2nd cousin who turned 90 in April. She's looking well and is pleased with the opportunity to have another chat. As we leave we tell her we'll be back and she very firmly replies that she'll be here waiting.
Sadly, Shirley is not here to say goodbye to now, but we still feel fortunate that we saw her in April.
On a happier note we caught up with Big Andy and Jeanette for a couple of beers in the beer garden at The Clarence which was really nice. Lots of laughs in the sun.
Now get me back to Kent. With over 3000 miles on the clock, I think I mentioned that, I've had enough of being in the car.

West Dean

They are all amazing, but this 90 acre garden has the most amazing variety of flowers, fruits and vegetables I have seen in one spot with a two and a half mile circular Parkland walk.

If you don't like Dahlias, look away now.....

Talk about variety

An Italian inspired walkway

 

A fashioned Pear tree

 

Kentish Skies

When we were in Lake Como, we'd while away time gazing at the sky, watching clouds and aircraft fly by. Such a relaxing thing to do. Equally the Kentish skies are very busy with Gatwick just up the road. They are mainly smaller aircraft that fly surprisingly close to each other.
The other night on the way home from the pub we had something a lot bigger to attract our attention.....

Hang Glider cruising past

As it passed over it was joined by a couple of aircraft wanting to get in on the act.

Sissinghurst

A garden, yes, but a garden with yet another story of interesting people involved. This time the love story of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson who fell in love with Sissinghurst and each other. Together they created this world renowned garden and were married in the Tower and Oasthouse.

Clematis Hedge

Pond at the bottom of the garden

Walled Garden

The White Garden

Our little cottage is within walking distance of Sissinghurst, about 50 mins or so. Having popped in to check it out, we'll go back next week to study the new exhibition on Vita and Harold and read about their story in more depth.
One of the fascinating things is to watch the gardeners at work and how and why they do things, like pruning this stand of trees.

Also visiting a few years apart you can see the progress of renovations that have been taking place like this section of the hedge that had to be replaced because it died. Slow growing, but getting there.



 Also interesting to see very good gardens and gardeners can have failures.

We're told that bees are in decline in UK as they are in Australia, but there are lots around at the moment and they are the big fat buzzy sort.





More Gardens.......

On the way home from Brighton, I was promised more gardens, cause I had been such a good little driver.
First stop.....Nymans, beautiful gardens and the romantic ruins of a fairytale gothic mansion.

Remains of the Mansion

The mansion remains in the garden as a ruin after a huge fire in 1947. Several rooms remain open with a collection of 17th century furniture and tapestries. Again, the history of the families who owned these sorts of properties is sometimes enchanting, sometimes haunting. The last of the Messel family to live here was Anne Messel, who married a barrister, Ronald Armstrong-Jones and produced Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowden who married Princess Margaret. This gave his mother, Anne entry to the Royal family. They also had a daughter Susan. This was a well to do marriage but did not last, they divorced in 1935.

Anne in her finery for royal visits

Her second marriage was to Laurence Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse which gave her the title of Countess of Rosse, which was much better. From this marriage there were 2 sons. The Countess went on to live until she was 90, a fine life, with a nice friendship with the Royal Family and Christmas cards from The Queen Mum.
Anyway back to the garden........so easy to get side tracked with gossip......

Summer Border

Rose Garden

It's a sprawling landscape of 600 acres with a walled garden in the centre and surrounded by a cool leafy woodland where children can play and run free discovering birds and wildlife.

 This is a far cry from kids today who don't venture out of doors and it was such a delight to see.

A Day in Brighton

Why do we keep leaving our idyllic setting in the fields of Kent you might ask.....
Well, a day at the cricket, of course!
John's friend Michael, uni mate, invited him to Brighton for a couple of days with some of his chums to watch a cricket match and enjoy some refreshments. Initially he was going for 2 nights, by himself, on the train. At this stage I was shivering with excitement at the prospect of some time alone.....
But, Brighton being Brighton, accommodation is hard to come by and at a premium price, and the rail system being impossible to get from our little village to Brighton, WE ended up having to drive and stayed for the one night - Sunday.
The sadness of having free time was overcome by some retail therapy and some relaxation while the boys went and played up, 5 old men painting the town pink cause they weren't quite up to red!
Brighton is now the Gay Capital of England and had just hosted the Gay March for Pride that weekend. The city was heaving with people and was very tired by Sunday night. The people watching was fabulous but very much in your face.
I had a ball and had a fine room overlooking Brighton Beach.
All good.....