London weekend

London weekend We had quite a full weekend in London last week, first off we went to the national Portrait Gallery to see the portrait newly identified as Catherine of Aragon. There she sits right next to a portrait of Henry painted at the same time and she couldn’t be anyone else. I don’t know why she wasn’t identified years ago. The NPG was a bit crowded so we didn’t linger too long but went off to see the Old Operating Theatre at St Thomas’ hospital near London Bridge. Really fascinating, was used up to about 1860 then got left bricked up and forgotten about for 100 years until someone climbed in through a window 15 feet above an adjacent roof in 1956. It in the top of a church tower and has a large glass roof and is set out just like a theatre with tiered standing rows in a horseshoe. There’s also a herb garret (attic) with old remedies & cures and lots of old operating instruments to see. Worth while going to see for an hour if you are passing by .For dinner we went to Bel Canto a splendid restaurant in Lancaster gate. Fine French cooking and every 15 minutes or so the waiting staff sing opera. NO really! they are trained opera singers and we had two females and three males singing some great opera. With some drinking songs for audience participation too. Sunday it was nice and sunny so a slow stroll along the Thames brought us to the Tate modern. Now try as I might, OK I’m a philistine! I did look with open mind and heart but I just don’t get nearly all of it. Take an example -- Square tube exhibit-- no its just some old ventilation duct rescued from a skip and leant against a wall, and as for the room full of dinosaur poo ….where’s the art I ask. There was one room of photos with an industry and architecture theme and yes some if the photos were brilliant, shadows and angles etc but for the most part it was just dull scribbling on the walls. All too soon we had to travel back to Sussex and home but a great weekend in London

Hampton Court palace in the snow

An out of the usual season visit to Hampton Court Palace for the day and snow lay all about crisp and even but not too deep. The snow had the advantage that most of the tourists stayed away so we had a great time wandering around with not too many people getting in the way. The gardens were closed off due to the ice and snow but the warm inside of the palace made up for that. The day at court series of play-lets was about King Henry VIII trying to woo Jane Seymour. With her brothers help, he set about trying to convince her of his love whilst plotting to get rid of Anne Boleyn. He gave her some money (taken from the brother of course. Which she refused playing the long game. The characters are really great and in the setting that the events actually took place makes the whole palace come alive and for the kids it's a brilliant way to learn and observe history. One youngster was given the task of presenting the gift on behalf of the King to Jane Seymour. We didn't see the end of the series as we had a thoroughly entertaining, informative and interesting two hours at the Royal school of Needlework. The school has it's base at the Palace and it is the 140th year anniversary of it's founding this year. We saw some excellent craft from bygone years and there were some students sewing in the studio so we were able to chat about their work. It was quite incredible to see a person working with gold thread, yes actual gold thread! triple wound for strength and sewn without the aid of a magnifying glass. Under great secrecy in 2011, The ladies there were the people who sewed the wedding dress for Kate Middleton yes that dress! but shhhh! I can't tell you any more about it. We finished the day off with a splendid three course dinner and an excellent bottle of wine at the Mitre Hotel just opposite the Palace finishing off with coffee and tea in the minstrels library before donning our overcoats for the journey back to central London. Areallt great day all round and thanks to the ladies at The RSN

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.

Royal Progress day 16

Day 16 Leeds castle and Lewes Leeds castle in Kent is perhaps the most beautiful and romantic looking castles in the whole world. Set on two little islands surrounded by water evokes the medieval period with very little imagination. The castle is set in the middle of 500 acres of parkland and gardens, it is a most beautiful surroundings. King Henry VIII owned the place and stayed here on his way to France in 1520, since then it has many different owners and is now owned by a charitable trust. The inside of the castle has been remodelled in the 1920’s and not to my taste have to say. They were setting the parklands up for a Bonfire fireworks display at the weekend so let’s hope it stays dry for the event. Our final drive of this tour is to the most southerly point on our Royal Progress. Lewes the county town of East Sussex. The town has many features, old buildings and a lot of History. Henry III lost the battle of Lewes in 1264 to Simon De Montfort and was forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, effectively creating the Parliament system we know today. In the Town museum there were a group of Ladies hard at work creating a tapestry of the event to be they had been working for over a year and they expect to finish by Christmas next year. We finished the day with a splendid curry meal at the Spice merchant Indian restaurant in Lewes.

Royal Progress day 15

Day 15 Dover On to the south coast today to see the magnificent Dover castle perched high on the famous white cliffs. It was very, very windy today and we had our breath taken away by some of the gusts. It was a clear day and we could see France 22 miles away. Dover castle is huge and it has been a defensive fort since Roman times. There are really five worlds in one at Dover castle. A Roman light house, still the highest Roman structure in England today, stands right next to a Saxon Church within a Saxon walled enclosure. There are medieval tunnels dating back to the early 1200’s and scene of the siege during the barons war of 1216. There are Napoleonic era tunnels that were used in WWII as a hospital and as the headquarters of one of the most famous periods in WWII, The evacuation of the entire British Army of 338,000 men from Dunkirk in Northern France. We visited the Hospital but did not have time to see the Dunkirk part of the network. There is an exciting new addition now, there are special guided tours of the Cold war tunnels beneath all the rest of the tunnel levels, I look forward to seeing these on a future planned visit. But it was the castle keep that we came to see today, a huge imposing building built by Henry II in 1180. The setting is for Henry in residence with tapestries,beds and furniture faithfully recreated and with the log fire blazing it gave you a real feeling of what it must have been like living in those times. Today being Halloween there were kids everywhere dressed as ghosts and ghouls. They were having fun flowing the ghost trail a series of character guides telling awful tales of ghosts and murder within the castle. On to the medieval village of Lenham to spend the night in and old Tudor coaching inn and right next door there is a fabulous old pub with oak beam and log fires. Our meal was stone steaks, yes slabs of raw meat delivered sizzling to your table on a very hot granite stone. You cook it yourself as you are sitting there, no orders to the chef just you and how you want it.

Royal Progress Day 14

Day 14 Rochester There has been a church on the site of Rochester Cathedral since 604AD. The present cathedral building dates from the late 1100s. It has some of the oldest choir stalls in England but the Victorian restoration around the choir and chancel has changed the character of the place a little. As cathedrals go it’s not very large but it’s still third in the hierarchy of the Church of England. It was in the Bishops Palace on 1 January 1540 that Henry VIII first set eyes on Anne of Cleves. He was in disguise and she was not informed as to how she should react. To say that Henry was not best pleased was an understatement and he stormed out, shouting “I like her not!” He came back in a few minutes later and you can imagine that he must have had a face like thunder. Right next door to the cathedral is Rochester Castle. It was built around the same time and besieged by King John in during the Barons War which led to Magna Carta. He managed to undermine the castle keep by setting fire to pit props which had been smeared with the fat of 40 pigs and the heat made the side of the keep come crashing down. As an aside Rochester is famous for Charles Dickens. It seems that every shop in the High St is Great Expectations this, and Sweet Expectations that or Mrs Peagotti tea rooms. There are old buildings that have plaques stating they are as described in Dicken’s works. A couple of miles away from Rochester lies Upnor Castle, the only Castle Elizabeth ordered to be built during her entire 45 years on the throne. The castle is very small and saw real action in the Dutch raid of 1667 when the Dutch fleet blew the Royal Navy out of the water as they were anchored in the river Medway. The main first floor block house room is used today as a wedding venue where guests watch the wedding ceremony whilst sitting on barrels of gunpowder (empty of course!) The thought of exploding guests made us laugh out loud. The poor bride would have had to have walked through the ground floor barrack room past exhibits of cannons and more barrels of gunpowder before climbing a narrow wooden spiral staircase. Not to be undertaken if she’s wearing full wedding skirts! We had a beer in the delightful Kings Arms before heading back for our second night in the Astor Wing at Hever Castle.

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.