Royal Progress day 17

Day 17 Anne of Cleves For The last day we spend together we started at Anne of Cleves house in Lewes. It’s a very small place that was given to her as part of the divorce settlement. But we had a special interactive talk by Hands on History. For the last two weeks we have seen artefacts, books, armour and weapons but always either behind glass or beyond touching behind a rope. Hands on History offers the chance to touch feel look smell and even taste the real thing. We were treated to an entertaining, educational and enthralling talk given by Martin Patterson. He showed us armour & weapons from the Tudor period and I even got to put on a helmet with chain mail attached. There was also fabrics, linens, leather, horn, wood, nothing was left to waste in the everyday lives of the Tudor people. There were pots with lanolin, wool, sinew and even stinging nettle string, All useful items in days gone by. A special mention must be made of a prayer book dating from 1385. It was hand written by monks on vellum and just holding an old book with it’s aged pages a bit worn was a it has been thumbed many times in it’s life time. After a hearty local lunch we set off to London by train for the final night in England at the Gore Hotel Kensington.