Today's travels found us leaving Robin Hood's Bay after breakfast and heading towards York to visit for the day. Our intent was to explore the city, including the walls that surround it, and to visit the Treasurer's House, a National Trust Property.
Marty drove an hour and a half in the rain, and when we arrived at the car park in York, it seemed as if the rain was easing up to a light sprinkle. Well....that didn't last long.
It's not like we weren't prepared as we know by now to pack rain gear for the United Kingdom, but I must admit that the rain was pretty steady and I found it extremely cumbersome to walk the streets with my Vera hat under the hood of my rain coat. (That's Marty's name for the hat....not mine.)
But we weren't going to let the rain keep us from exploring so we headed to the walls around the city that had an access point near the parking lot.
We walked one length of the walls, which is about a quarter of the perimeter of the city.
It conveniently took us over the museum gardens
and the exit to this section is literally just around the corner from the York Museum Gardens.
They were featuring a special display entitled "Ghosts in the Garden" and we decided to walk through the rain to check it out.
I do have to admit, the "ghosts" certainly did have an eerie effect. Particularly in the gloomy weather.
The flowers were magnificent!
The gardens are very small and it didn't take long to make the walk, so we decided to try to find a second set of walls. But, we got side-tracked and found ourselves walking down this street.
along this very slimy looking river that runs through the city
and soon found ourselves at the foot of Clifford's tower.
Across the street stand these two magnificent buildings as well as the Castle Museum.
We opted NOT to climb the steps to the tower, but were satisfied with a selfie in the rain.
Believe it or not, we had already spent nearly two hours just walking around, and I had made a tour reservation for the Treasurer's house for 12:45 so we decided to head that direction.
Despite the rain, I was able to get a few photographs of some interesting architecture.
This latest photo is of the York Minster which stands directly across the street from the Treasurer's House.
The house itself was once a series of 3 townhouses connected when it was purchased by Frank Green in 1897. Frank came from what was called "new money" which meant that his predecessors had earned their fortunes through ingenuity. They were not titled and were frequently shunned by society.
Frank worked with designers to turn the Treasurer's House into a showcase for his collection of historic furnishings as well as art and collectible items. The transformation was complete by 1900, and between the years of 1903 and 1906 he actually offered tours of the house.
He was well known by the community, and had earned the friendship of the Prince of Wales, who actually slept in the house with his wife and daughter just a few months prior to becoming crowned the King of England. So, this made the house even more appealing to visitors.
Frank began to suffer poor health and he decided to gift the house with its entire contents to the National Trust. He made it very clear in the contract that the items were all to stay in the house, and he went so far to lay out marking of exactly where he wanted each item placed. This made Treasurer's house the first piece of property that was gifted to the National Trust with all of the original contents included.
The tour was extremely entertaining and informative as usually is the case when we tour these properties. These volunteers absolutely love their roles in telling the history of the property.
I've chosen just a few items to highlight. The first is the fireplace that stands in the drawing room in the front of the house. Note the green walls. The color was not picked on a whim. It is green because Frank's last name was Green.
Here is the grand hall designed to look just like one. This is actually the middle townhouse that was purchased. The second story was removed to make a room that looked very much like a grand hall in a castle.
This photo is taken from the Minstrel's galley above.
Two ceramic imported porcelain plates hang above the doorway to the back of the house.
The walls were, again, a different shade of green. I found the painting above the fireplace to be exquisite.
Once the Prince of Wales visited with his wife, Frank had the beds that they had slept in upgraded to look like Royal beds. He knew that the general population would not know what kind of bed the royals had slept in, and since he was opening his house for tours, and people were interested, he installed bedding that he felt was more fitting to the aristocracy, including the royal family crests.
I'm adding this painting simply because Marty took the photo. The woman's eyes follow one around the room. The guides joked that she was there to keep an eye on things.
When the tour was complete, we headed down to the cafe for a Cream tea.
and it gave us some time to dry off! My sweater, which was under a rain jacket, somehow managed to get one entire arm completely soaked!
We headed out the door to admire the front gardens of the house.
From here we made our way back to the car park to start the journey to our next destination: Lincoln. It rained for the entire drive which was nearly two hours long. But once we were parked at the B&B, the skies cleared and the weather is actually quite pleasant at the moment.
We walked up the hill towards the castle for dinner
and found an extremely entertaining place to enjoy a meal.
Marty had the honor of cutting the pizza that we shared with the provided scissors.
The pizza was delicious! We finished in short time and headed back to the B&B. By now the sun had set and we could capture a breath taking photo of Lincoln Cathedral.
And we spied part of the castle lit up as well.
It's a little tricky maneuvering the walk ways as they are quite steep, but we made it safely to our B&B which is actually perched high on a hill overlooking the lower city.
We hung our clothes to dry (in the room) and are all settled into our comfy room.
We're staying in Lincoln for three nights, but we plan on exploring the area by car during the day. So, here's hoping getting down the very steep driveway won't be too nerve wracking for me. I'm fairly certain Marty will find the whole experience fun. Perhaps I'll just keep my eyes closed.
Hopefully I'll be updating our adventures tomorrow!
Until next time!
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