Royal Progress Day 13

Day 13 Hever and Penshurst place Travelling south east out of London to Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. Set on the edge of the High Weald in Kent, we are taking advantage of the recent development of the Astor Wing of the Castle now offering B&B for the casual visitor. The ornamental gardens at Hever were set up by J J Astor in 1910 and are superb. The formal ornate Italian gardens are so called because Astor imported many sculptures and stone features from Italy. They are to be found all around the gardens leading to the huge lake. Even in October there were still flowers in bloom and grapes on the vines. It’s rather special, as a resident, to be able to walk around the gardens before the tourists are allowed in. You can easily appreciate the special magic that these gardens have. The Castle itself is quite small and had many owners in its time, before and after the Boleyn family. It was even given to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce settlement but it lay derelict for over a century before Astor come along and saved it by renovating it to a high standard. It has some artefacts belonging to Anne Boleyn including two of her prayer books, one of which is supposed to have been held by her on the way to the scaffold. Just a few miles away lies Penshurst Place, which for me is the southern pleasure palace of Queen Elizabeth I. Henry VIII confiscated it from the Duke of Buckingham and so it was a royal palace until 1556 when Edward VI gave it to the Sidney family. It has been their family home ever. We know that Elizabeth came here many times and it was here in the Solar where the infamous painting depicts her dancing the scandalous La Volta with Robert Dudley. There are some hugely important women in the Sidney family such as Lady Mary Wroth, poet, writer, literary leader and, some arguments had it, actually wrote Shakespeare’s plays. Just outside the gates of Penshurst is a wonderful old church. In the Sidney chapel lies someone who is not usually recorded in history tales, Anne Boleyn’s younger brother Thomas, who died in infancy. Anne’s father was superintendent at Penshurst when it was a royal palace and when Thomas was born. We had a beer in the Leicester Arms in Penshurst village before heading back to Hever Castle for the evening where we had dinner in the Wheatsheaf pub surrounded by an eclectic mixture of collectables from around the world.