Castle Howard
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 9 May 2014 21:57
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Our Visit to Castle
Howard
 We left York after breakfast and
drove under a dreary rain-laden sky, the fifteen miles to the first impressive monument that lets you know you are
nearing the amazing ‘driveway’ of Castle Howard.
  Once there you see a bit more.
   Once there, you see a bit more.
   Once there, you see the last bit.
  We paid our fourteen pounds entry,
jumped on the transfer train pulled by a trust tractor and chugged past the
front of the Stable Block, a minute or two later we
caught our first glimpse of Castle Howard
itself.
 Castle
Howard is one of England’s finest historic houses, situated just outside
York in the Howardian Hill, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Built in the
18th century by Sir John Vanbrugh for Charles Howard, the third Earl of
Carlisle, today Castle Howard is home to the Hon. Simon and Mrs Howard and their
children Merlin and Octavia.
  We left the tractor and found a Rolls-Royce photo shoot in progress, bet they wished they
had selected a brighter colour on this drizzly, grey day, for this quarter of a
million pound steed. I thought it just got in the way of a nice picture of the front facade of the house.
 Directly behind us was the view over
the Great Lake. To the front we could see the
original ‘areas’ that formed perhaps the first fish farm and nursery pools in
the country.
   Through the
entrance, up into the first room where a portrait of the Hon. Simon Howard hangs. We learned from
the very knowledgeable and friendly guide that as guides they change room every
half an hour.
   In the first
bedroom I whispered to the room guide, she looked alarmed, I was
horrified when she began to step back from me. I went on to whisper that this
was day thirty with no voice and I was no longer infectious. She turned, chewing
gum visible and I was left feeling very hurt indeed. Bear told me not to worry
as I stepped in to the pink room. He was very taken
with the commode.
   I cheered up a bit when I saw the bear in the next room.
   Each room we wandered through was just
breathtakingly charming.
 Bees.
Delighted to see the pattern on this elderly cloth.
 From up on the first floor we had a
nice view of the ‘residential
quarters’..........
 ...........and the dodgy coloured
Rolls.
  Stunning corridor. View
of the Atlas Fountain in the garden.
   We
turned left and found ourselves in a corridor filled with
Roman busts, and what a
radiator.
   A 2nd century Antoninus Pius
– AD 86-161. A stained glass
window and a stunning
clock.
 Posing on the stairs. More to
follow.......
ALL IN ALL MAGNIFICENT AND
VERY BEAUTIFUL
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