day 1

Six Wives of One King, day 1 Before the official start of the tour we travelled southwest tour of London by train to the Vyne at Basingstoke in Hampshire. The Vyne is a beautiful place full of Tudor history, but long before that time the Romans first planted grape vines here in England and it’s been called the Vyne ever since for 1600 years. The place was once owned by the Sandys family who are courtiers of Henry VIII and we started at the Vyne for two reasons which will become very much clearer as the tour progresses. The first is the Oak panelled long gallery. Still in it’s original condition, there are carvings of pomegranates, and other symbols relating to Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII and it’s a truly remarkable place to stand in and realise that this is where Henry stood. The second reason is the stained glass windows in the Chapel, There are three windows, one is of Henry VIII, one for Catherine of Aragon and Henry’s sister Margaret each with their own patron saint. The Windows are superb and also remarkable that they survived Oliver Cromwell during our civil war in the 1640’s. They were in fact hidden in a pond for several years to keep them safe. After the Vyne we drove to Hampton Court, no not to go to the Palace but to just leave our luggage at the hotel before we set of on the first real leg of the tour to Syon House about 6 miles away. Syon is a very important Tudor house, it’s been the home of the Percy family for over 450 years. Here in the long gallery is where Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen. The gallery has been remodelled since the Tudor period, but if you keep in mind the image of the long Gallery at the Vyne then you get a true picture of what it looked like in 1553, where for just 9 days Lady Jane Grey was Queen. We then came back to Hampton Court to go to Palace and have a lesson of real tennis, nothing like lawn tennis that Roger Federer or Nadal play today but the game that Henry VIII played actually on this very site, indoors and with galleries, sloping roofs, a bell and a played with a hard ball made of cork, leather and string binding. It’s a very difficult game to master with complicated rules and lots of different lines on the court. We finished the day with a splendid dinner and wine at the hotel overlooking the river Thames