Episode 12

Well, I am back here sitting on Heathers' sofa with not a lot happening around me. L doesn’t seem do much, nothing unusual there, and the last few days D has been going off each morning to his friend James’ home where they have apparently been busy doing 'things’.

The weather has been lovely with hot sunny days and sometimes storms in the evening and early morning. Today we had thunder in the morning and though it didn’t rain here it tipped down ten miles away in Worthing where there was some flash flooding, and a further ten miles beyond there a heavy hail storm made it look as if winter has come early. Currently as my secretary sits writing this there is thunder all about and light rain, it’s early evening. (well it was when she wrote that bit, it’s days later now).

We did make a couple of interesting visits to the same large manor house/stately home, Petworth House, not far away in the village of the same name. Then on another occasion we visited the house where Rudyard Kipling lived.

Originally the land was granted to a Du Percy who L believes came over to England with the Norman invasion and were granted lands in Northumberland and given the title of the Duke of Northumberland. It was only of minor importance to the first Duke and his descendants who rarely visited the place.

During the 16th Century Henry VIII visited the estate often and it’s believed he had a hunting lodge in the grounds. The House wasn’t built until the 17th century when the property came into the hands of Charles Seymour the 6th Duke of Somerset. The Percy’s having no male heir to continue the line. As far as L is aware it’s the descendants of Charles Seymour who still occupy the house and own the estate although the house was given to the National Trust in 1947.

Our first visit was on a Friday afternoon; we had set off with the expectation that it would be open as its July and many people are on holiday: However, when we arrived we were told that it wasn't open for general viewing but there was a ‘show case’ tour available.

The house is noted for it’s art works, there are hundreds of painting and a great many sculptures: One of the owners was a patron of J M W Turner, the famous English painter and there are many of Turners painting in the house. That particular Duke wasn't the only collector in the family there were others both before and after him, resulting in what is to be seen now. This ‘show case’ tour that we joined focused just on a few paintings from the 16th century, this is before the time of Turner.

The guide gave us quite a history of the people who were the subjects of the paintings she was showing us. It was all quite involved and much went over L’s head. Many of these painting were Van Dykes . The guide did point out a Titan too: Apparently the reason all the women look very alike is that there was a set idea of what a woman at that time should look like so that was how she was painted and didn’t necessarily bear any resemblance to what she really looked like. Also, these ‘masters’ only painted the most important part of the painting and left the backgrounds and other minor details to be painted by their under studies or students.

We didn't see much of the house as we only entered four rooms on that tour. A little later in the afternoon we joined an archaeology tour that took us to a ‘dig’ taking place quite a way off in the park.

The dig was taking place on about the highest point of the property on the very edge of a bluff with great views all around. There were a great number of people busily involved in the actual dig and several others in tagging and documenting the finds. Most were volunteers.

What had been uncovered wasn't far below present ground level and its thought it may be a hunting lodge from Henry VIII time. A couple of stone walls have been found and it’s believed it may have been up to 20m square. A nice section of paved floor was being cleared when we visited. One of the principal finds is quite a lot of ‘Tudor green’ pottery and it’s this that is the basis for the 16th century date. Tudor Green is a fine light weight pottery with a dark green glaze that was made in Tudor times.

It is also possible that there was a much older small castle on the property and it could well be under the present excavations but to look for any trace of that it would mean disturbing what has already been found so is likely to happen without a great deal more research being done.

There had been a dig last year in front of the house and it had uncovered a very large and expensive stable block that ‘Capability’ Brown, the famous 18th century landscape gardener had had demolished when he landscaped the property. The stable block has been very lavish and only been built 30 years prior to its being demolished. The whole of what we could see of the park is an artificial landscape, the rounded hill had once been a rocky outcrop.

It was a few days later when we returned and did a general tour of the house although it still only covered a small part of the whole house. This time we got to see a copy of Michelangelo’s Pieta, the original is in St Peter’s in Rome. This was just outside the large private chapel. There are a great many Turner paintings and Constables too, along with many others including the Titian. L quite liked the statues many of which could well be replicas of Greek and Roman ones. . I got my photo taken a few times and a few people commented on my good looks which, of course pleased me no end.

Although there had been a large gallery specially built at some point in history to house all this art work, not only is it crammed full of paintings and sculptures but the rest of the house is equally crowded with them.

Upstairs we got to see a couple of the bedroom and arrived in one just in time to hear a talk about one of its former occupants and her descendants. One of her sons had the nickname of ‘Boysie’ and was at Oxford with Oscar Wilde with whom he had a relationship that endured for quite a few years.

After we had finished in the main house we had a look around the large servant block and saw the large kitchen which L believes must still be used occasionally as there was a rather large, fairly modern, stainless steel gas cooker sitting beside the old wood fired stoves. The rooms at the northern end where the cheese and milk was kept along with meat and other supplied that we now all keep in fridges were amazingly cool even though it was a very hot day outside. There is an icehouse on the grounds though it’s quite some distance from the house and kitchens. These icehouses if properly packed with ice would still have ice in them at the end of summer.

The car park had been almost full when we’d arrived and we’d feared that the house would be very crowded, however, it hadn’t been, so we had been able to take our time and enjoy our visit.

It was yet another nice day when we made the much longer trip to visit the house where Rudyard Kipling had lived from 1902 till he died in January 1936. Kipling had been born and Indiain 1865 and sent to England for his schooling, after which he returned to India for some time. Then he came back to England, married an American and went to live in Vermont for a few years. After some falling out with his in-laws there, he and his family returned to England sometime in the 1890’s. His eldest daughter died of pneumonia after becoming ill on a journey from England to the USA, his son was killed in WW1, and his second daughter outlived him and died in 1976 leaving no heirs.

The name of the house is Bateman’s and it is situated in the countryside in a beautiful spot not far from Lewes in East Sussex. Once again there were a great many people about it being summer school holidays and good weather for picnics and outings to the countryside.

Batemans isn’t a large house with a great many rooms though there are more rooms than we got to visit. It is furnished with much of the original furniture, the rooms being quite crowded.. The living rooms are downstairs, the entrance hall, the dining room and a sitting room. All are quite small and dark as is typical of such houses. The dining room has some very interesting corbelled wall paper. It is made of calf leather that has been tooled, covered in a thin layer of tar that gives it a gold colour then hand painted in a floral design. L’s understanding is that Kipling had acquired it second hand. It is still in very good condition.

Narrow wooden stairs lead upstairs to the study, and the bedrooms. All the upstairs rooms have good views of the gardens. The study where Kipling used to work and write, mostly in the mornings, has one the wall lined with bookshelves that are sagging with the weight of the many books kept on them.

On display in the guest bedroom is one of Kipling’s school uniforms, and also a ‘wardrobe trunk’ that was once a ‘must have’ for any traveller. Stood on end such a trunk had drawers on one side and hanging space on the other large enough to hang several shirts and jackets etc. It is extremely heavy and required a team of porters to move it around.

Some way off on the other side of the garden is an old mill that the National Trust have got working again and they use to grind flour that is sold in the NT shop. It had been a working mill before Kipling bought the property, however he had the waterwheel that had powered it removed and replaced with a turbine that could produce enough power to run the house. The NT have put in a much smaller water wheel (than the original) to work the mill and have left the turbine still in place.

In the garage is Kipling’s Rolls Royce. This is a 1928 model that cost £3000. It is stored behind glass and L couldn’t get a photo of it for you. He was a great lover of the motor car though apparently, like me, he never drove himself. He had a few different very early models including a steam car. Of that one he said that at least it was very quiet, mostly for the same reason a dead person is quiet.

Now I have been told that we may well be off again in a few days time. My humans aren’t exactly sure what day we will set off but it seems likely we will be taking the usual ferry to Dunkirque and head to Germany in order to pop in and see some friends whom I’ve yet to met: Perhaps I should have a bath in order to look my best.

© Lynette Regan August 2nd 2014