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ENGLAND: LONDON AND THE COTSWOLDS
12 - 27 May 2016

LONGLEAT HOUSE

Friday, May 20. We had breakfast at the Abbey Hotel again, and Lee was there at 9:00 sharp to pick us up. This would be the final day of out private tour. Our first stop was at Longleat House (1580), about eight miles away, the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. The house was huge, with about 130 rooms. To help maintain it, the Marquess not only was the first in the UK to open a stately home to the public commercially (1949), but he also used the grounds for the first drive-through safari park outside Africa (1966). There is also an adventure park. These attractions bring in far more income than do the house tours.

Although Lee drove us around to countryside on the way down, we still arrived twenty minutes before the house was to open. That gave us a little time to look around outside and to pose with the huge brass lion out front. We were at the door promptly at ten when the house was scheduled to open. But we were informed that it would not open until noon because the Marquess was "in residence."


Sheep roam the countryside

Longleat House & blue fountain

I fend off the mighty lion

We were offered a chance to join a short guided tour through some "private rooms" in the west wing to see some "unusual art." It was painted by the 7th Marquess before he turned the house over to his son in 2010. We had never heard of the Marquess or his art, but we had two hours to kill, so we accepted the invitation. It was an experience, to say the least.


Looks like high school graffiti

A more sedate design
We must have gone through ten rooms, each with the walls uniquely painted, bearing no resemblance  to anything else we had ever seen. They did have in common that they were not smooth or flat but rather like low bas relief. Some of them were mildly risque'. I understand the art in some of the rooms we did not see is pornographic.

The private tour did not take much more than half an hour, so we left the house with a lot more time to kill. Lee joined us and we wandered toward the rear of the house. We discovered what must have been part of the adventure park. We went through a house of mirrors, then into the Bat Cave. The cave was almost completely dark, and we were repeatedly brushed by flying bats. Using my camers viewer, I could just make out a couple bats hanging upside down, one eating fruit. I took a few pictures at random (no flash allowed) and, with a bit of Photoshop enhancement, some bats showed up.


Jane in house of mirrors

Darrell at bat cave

A bat in flight

Continuing toward the rear, we came upon a fairly extensive outdoor zoo. We explored that until it was nearly noon. Then we headed back to the front of the house and got there just as the doors opened. It was not a guided tour, but there were placards in each room describing it. Because we were running two hours late, we tried to move along at a brisk pace. Less than 30 of the 120 rooms were included in the tour but it still took us about 90 minutes to get through them.


The great hall


The grand staircase

The long gallery

Fortunately we found a cafeteria in the basement just as we finished our tour. We were able to order a cream tea each. Jane objected when I helped myself to more than one packet of clotted cream, but I had no trouble finishing it. Lee was waiting for us as we emerged about 14:40.

AVEBURY

It was about an hour's drive to Avebury, our next stop. Like nearby Stonehenge, 17 miles to the south, Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument. It has three stone circles, one of them the largest stone circle in Europe. Although there are many more stones here than at Stonehenge, they are much smaller. Also, there is a village (Avebury) built amidst the stones. The area is not fenced and there is no admission charge. Also unlike Stonehenge, visitors may freely move among the stones and touch them to their hearts' content. 


Depiction of stones at peak

Jane among the stones

It's really hard to move them

The stone circles are hard to date since the site was developed over a period of centuries, but the stones probably were placed beginning around 2,500 B.C. We roamed among them for half an hour, then wandered through the village and stopped at the small visitors' center. Avebury was a very quiet place and there were few tourists.


Another line of stones

Entering village of Avebury

Stones run through the village

HIGHCLERE CASTLE

By now it was 15:15 and we were feeling the pressure of time. Avebury normally would have been the last stop on our tour, but we had asked Lee to take us to Highclere Castle, of Downton Abbey fame. It was only abut 15 minutes driving time (each way) from our route back to London. But being two hours behind our planned schedule, it would clearly put us into the Friday evening rush hour.

It was 16:00 by the time we reached the entrance to the Highclere Castle grounds. Using the Internet, Darrell had found a public "footpath" through the grounds that we could use even though they were otherwise closed to visitors. It was not certain, but I thought we should be able to see the Castle from the path. Although I was right, our walk was much different than I had expected. 

 

Us at Highclere castle

Lee dropped us off on the far side of the narrow bridge over highway A34 and leading to the gate. I had expected he could drive us right to the gate. The footpath was there, marked by an inconspicuous and overgrown sign, but the path was actually a road, wide enough for two cars to pass. Instead of being less than half a mile to our expected view point, our walk was well over a mile (each way). Finally, while we could see the Castle from the view point, a low hill obscured the lower third of it. Still, we did see Highclere Castle, or at least most of it. We could have walked up that hill a little way for a better view, but that would have taken us off the public footpath.

We phoned Lee as we crossed back over the bridge, and he was there in a few minutes. It was after 16:30 when we started back toward London. We never did make up the two hours lost at Longleat. Consequently we were in heavy traffic the entire way, but especially passing through London. Eventually Lee left the major roads and took us through neighborhood streets, so we saw a great deal of the city.

Along the way, we called Andy with our estimated time of arrival. We got to his house about 19:00. We thanked Lee and said our goodbyes. I gave him a large tip in appreciation of his making the detour to Highclere Castle for us. He still had a two-hour drive home and was scheduled for another tour early the next morning.

Andy and Liz made dinner and we ate about 21:00. We had a lot to talk about and stayed up pretty late.

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