Today is our last day in Britain, and we awoke to a brilliant morning: puffy white clouds floating along in brilliant blue skies with a slight chill in the air. Perfect for exploring.
I planned a relatively light day for today because it involved driving to Heathrow, checking into a hotel, and dropping off our rental car: three stressful events in my book. But Marty managed the drive well, the hotel check in was easy, and the drive to the rental agency wasn't too bad. And, the staff even drove us back to our hotel so that we didn't need to worry about an Uber, Taxi, or transport to get here! Perfect!
We enjoyed another lovely breakfast in the garden room at the Lynch Country House, then loaded the bags in our car and headed out on the road. Just by chance, there was a National Trust House just a few miles away from the B&B, and it so happened to be in the direction that we needed to travel.
Lytes Cary Manor:
It is known that there was a settlement of some sort here in 1086, as it is listed in the Domesday book, which is a land survey that was requested by William the conqueror.
In 1286, William Lyte was a feudal tenant who was given the choice of annual rent between 10 shillings a year or the contents of a swan's nest from the Rivery Cary. He chose to pay with shillings. I can't imagine how the other would have worked out, but apparently Swans were the caviar of the time as they were eaten and feasts and banquets.
Six generations of the Lyte family lived at the Manor with the house being expanded over the years, as was often the case.
When one enters the house the first room that greets you is the Great Hall. It was built in 1460.
The floor is original as are the walls and rafters.
The windows are original as well, but they were moved from another room to hang here.
Here's a close up of the tapestry that hangs in the Great Hall.
Just off this room is a small alcove that holds the first edition of "Niewe Herbal", the 1578 English translation of "Cruydtboeck written in French by Rembert Dodoens. Henry Lyte, also a botanist authored it.
Pretty amazing to have something that old on display here.
There is a chapel connected to the house that was commissioned in 1343 by the grandson of the original owner. The chapel itself has an outside entrance, but there was a small interior room with a tiny window, which the family could use for services rather than attending inside the chapel.
This is the first time that I've seen anything like this in one of these houses, and the window was very small to try to view the service. Perhaps they enjoyed spying on the congregation. Who knows?
The next room was a parlor which had a grand fireplace opposite a large bay window that looked out over one of the gardens. The walls were all wood paneling and original to the house. The furniture was added later, when the house was purchased by Sir Walter Jenner in 1907.
As with other houses that we toured these last few days, the original family was forced to sell when they faced financial hardship, and the lands ended up being farmed with the main residence becoming a glorified farmhouse. That was the condition when Jenner purchased the property. He and his wife restored the manor in a 17th century style. The furnishings were those that he purchased "on sale" at various properties. When Sir Walter passed, he had specified in his will that the house, along with its contents, were to be donated to the National Trust, and that the rooms were to remain as they had been when he passed.
One of the unique items in the collection is this embroidered mirror. The bottom of piece was embroidered in the 1600's, with Lady Flora Jenner completing it with the stitching above.
Note the fine stitches, and all of the sparkling jewels! The pattern reflects King Charles I in the lower left hand corner
and his Queen in the lower right.
I was amazed that a creation made over 400 years ago could be so well preserved.
Moving on, there were a few more paneled rooms with some interesting characteristics.
This was a portable camp bed for an officer. I found it to be a bit over the top, but I was sleeping the last three nights in a four poster bed with a canopy, so who am I to judge?
Back down the turret stairway, out the front door, and directly to the side is the chapel that is connected to the house. But it can only be entered by a side door. The window behind the altar was magnificent!
as was the wooden painting beneath.
It was rather small, but suited the family. When Sir Walter died, he was buried in this chapel with Flora and their daughter who had passed at the age of 30. It was his wish to be near them.
The land still reflects the farming that took place on this estate as a few sets of stables still stand adjacent to the house.
There were cows and sheep grazing nearby. And fields that held these interesting "mounds" en masse, filling fields. When asked, we were told that they are ant hills that belong to a rare species and that these fields are protecting them.
I'm really not sure how much danger they are of extinction as we could see these mounds everywhere we looked. That's a LOT of ants! The fields are not cultivated. The cows feed on them to keep the grass from growing out of control, so that is how the Trust has managed to preserve the ant hills.
This medieval manor house was surrounded by lovely gardens.
I learned that this is an Arts & Crafts garden, which means that the gardens are set up in sections, like rooms, and are planned to tie in with the theme of the house.
I'm not quite sure what that means, but I did note that there were several "plots", surrounded by box wood hedges, separating them from each other.
This lawn from the back was set up to play a game of crochet. The three sides were flanked by hedges, with the house being the fourth side.
Some sort of doorway separated each, like doors in a house, I suppose.
We'd seen other gardens with this type of layout, and I'd say that Barrington Court, which we visited yesterday, would qualify as the same type of garden. We really enjoy seeing the creativity that each one of them displays.
I hope that you've enjoyed seeing them through the lens of my camera as well.
But now it's time to bring this trip with all of its glorious gardens and coastline to an end. It's been a great trip and I hope that you have enjoyed following along.
Until next time....
