DAY 8 MAY 5, SUNDAY (19°C-7°C):
Leeds castle, Kent:
Leeds castle is touted as the loveliest castle in the world. So we had a day trip from London and were thrilled with the views. Note: Leeds castle is in Kent and is NOT to be confused with Leeds.
We wanted to board the train to
Bearsted, Leeds Castle from London Victoria at 8.45am. But there was
a fire alert at the Victoria station and so our tube did not stop
there. We got down at the previous station and took a taxi for £6
to Victoria. but our train had left. Thankfully our tickets
were valid for the next train. We took the 9.45 train and reached
Bearsted at 11, took the coach from there to the castle for a return
ticket of £5.
Got a Royal welcome with a peacock dance.
Leeds Castle was originally built
in 857 AD, becoming home to the Norman Family during William The
Conqueror's time (1016). In 1278 the building became a Royal
Palace for Edward I.
In the three centuries that
followed, the Castle was a Royal residence for six of the medieval
Queens of England, gaining its reputation as a 'ladies' castle'. Over
subsequent years, the Castle passed through the hands of three
influential families: the St Legers, the Culpepers and the
Wykeham-Martins. By 1925, one hundred years later, Wykeham
Martin family were forced to sell the property to pay death duties.
Described by the agents as
comprising ‘six spacious entertaining rooms, 20 principal bedrooms
and plenty of room for servants’, it was acquired by the
Anglo-American heiress the Hon. Olive Paget, then Mrs Wilson-Filmer,
(who later became Lady Baillie), bought the Castle from the
bankrupt Wykeham-Martins and totally restored its interior.
Olive was the daughter of an English
Baron and his American wife Pauline —Pauline was also an
heiress. Olive inherited half of her mother's fortune. Olive
married the son of an English Baron and had 2 daughters. The
marriage ended in a divorce.Olive bought Leeds castle with her 2nd
husband. That marriage also ended in divorce but Olive retained the
castle and married Sir Baillie in 1931. She thus became Lady Baillie.
She had a son but got divorced in 1945 and the Baron died in 1947.
She had always been a renowned hostess
and did lavish entertaining...During the 1930s, Leeds Castle became
one of the great country houses of England and a centre of lavish
hospitality for leading statesmen, European royalty and film stars.
Members of the royal family continued to be invited, including
Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother and Princess Marina. The
house-parties continued despite the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
Lady Baillie and her family moved into the Gloriette and the New
Castle served as a hospital; many were treated here, and it was also
used for the rehabilitation of severely burned pilots.
Lady Baillie was a smoker—her health
deteriorated from the 1950's and she needed oxygen and a resident
nurse in the 70's. She died in 1974, aged 75 years. She had given a
part of the castle's estate to her son but passed on the castle to a
charitable trust after her death.
Lady Baillie had spent years renovating
the house with a french designer. Some visitors are disappointed that
this castle's interiors are just the reflection of a wealthy
lady's whims— it does not have real royal stuff. We found the visit
entertaining.
These are marble busts of Henry VIII
and his 3 children who later succeded him.
Gold leaf work of the three wise men
with infant Jesus and Mary.
Lots of great tapestries
It's a noble man's home with all the fittings expected.
Bed with a huge canopy
Classy time piece and fresh flower arrangement.
All rooms have lovely views of the garden from the big windows.
Hand painted wood panel.
Lady Baillie was fond of birds —so
bird artefacts adorn the house and there was a huge menagerie of live
exotic birds like toucans, flamingos, etc on the estate but they
closed it down in 2012.
Several bird artefacts on the walls.
Bird mantle pieces.
Portraits of Lady Baillie.
An equestrian statue mounted on a
bureau??
Library. The globe at such a height??
It'll be such pleasure to lounge on
these couches and browse through the books... the books look
untouched—just showpieces??
The bottom blue row is a set of
dictionary!!
One of lady Baille's daughters
holding... a bird... what else??
They hire out rooms for weddings and
events—those are not the rooms the general visitor gets to see.
After visiting the interior, we were out on the castle grounds.
Making friends with swans....earlier
there was a full fledged aviary with exotic birds. So sad we missed
it.
Punting on this moat is available and
we had a 20 minute punt ride through this arch later.
Nice gift shop. Bird tapestries ... and
...jewelled birdies. Bird book as well.
Nice castle playset with knights and other paraphernilia
Attractive swords ... all for sale.
Skeletal hand grasping the wine glass. Glasses studded with skulls also. Throwing a halloween party?
The queen 60 years ago and now...
We had our picnic lunch.
Happy for the cool weather with no
rains.
Saw a few people on a
punt, walked over, paid the guy 5 pounds and got in...
Quite enjoyable to float through the
grounds seeing the castle from so many different angles. The punt is just a flat piece of wood
and and it is steered by a man standing on it at the end with a
pole... we had to lower ourselves right to the ground level and sit
sprawled on it...but the little discomfort was hardly felt as the
views were awesome.
Falconry display:
At 2 PM, saw the falconry display with an owl, hawk and falcon....We had seen the flawless display at Disney World Orlando, ...this was a tad less spectacular... the birds took a long time to respond.
They called a young boy to run with rabbit meat tied to a string and set the hawk after him... it swooped and pounced on the rabbit in a few seconds and the boy who had not reached his target kept running dragging the rabbit and the hawk.... quite a sight!!!
Maze:
The maze consists of 2,400 yew trees. We were hopelessly lost when we spotted
a staff member ... he was making for the centre to ask the people to
get down from the centre rocks.... we got to the center of the maze
by following him!!
It is fun to be on top of these rocks
because they can see the other struggling players marching to blind
ends....these brats were creating a big ruckus, laughing and yelling.
The way out of the maze was
interesting. Lots of horror effects... an underworld grotto, complete
with macabre forms and mythical beasts created from shells, minerals
and wood.
The maze in the background with the
brats still on the central rock.
Walked through the grounds. another
awesome view.
We wanted to catch the 3.40 coach back
to the train station... there was a train going to the entrance and
it was just starting ... we tried to flag it but the driver asked us
to wait for the next one.... so we started walking towards the coach
stop.... the grounds are huge and we saw the coach at a distance...
we sprinted.
We reached the coach stop around 3.45
but missed the coach by a few minutes—the frequency is only one
every hour.
So we waited around for the next one at
4.40. Our next train to Canterbury was at 4.50— we had wanted to
catch the one at 3.50 and had missed it.... but the coach reached the
station a few seconds late and we missed this train also!!
Sat at the station for the next train
—-on Sundays and holidays there is only one train every hour
instead of the usual 2. So caught the 5.50 train and reached
Canterbury west station, caught a taxi and hurried to the
cathedral... it was 6.35...the cathedral was already closed for
visitors at 5.30 and the evening mass had also started at 6.30!!
CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL:
Went to the side church door, opened it
and walked in... a priest came towards us... we requested if we can
join the mass though we are late... we said we have come all the way
...he okayed and took us to the altar... we tiptoed into the choir
stands and joined the mass!!
It was a great experience... we looked around as much as we could from our seats...the priest had told us that we will not be allowed to walk through the rest of the cathedral, so after the mass, came out and took pics of the exterior.
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury,
Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in
England. Obviously no pictures are allowed inside the church but this
link shows the 12th century choir where we sat during the mass:
Founded in 597, the cathedral was
completely rebuilt from 1070 to 1077. The first Archbishop of
Canterbury was St Augustine, a missionary who arrived on the coast of
Kent in AD 597. St Augustine came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the
Great.
The east end was rebuilt in the
Gothic style following a fire in 1174, to accommodate the flow
of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop
who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170.
Note the Gothic style, with pointed
arches, rib vaulting and flying buttresses. The limestone used was
imported from Caen in Normandy, and Purbeck marble was used for the
shafting.
We had lost 1 hour at London
Victoria station, then another hour waiting for the coach from the
Leeds castle, one more hour at the Bearsted station waiting for the
train to Canterbury west. Better time management would have enabled
us to tour inside this cathedral.
We were grateful the sunlight
lingers till after 9 PM , so roamed around the cathedral, clicking
pics.
The cathedral is 540 feet long...the bell tower is 250 feet high. This is the Bell Harry Tower of 1498.
In 1862 niches were filled with historical figures connected with the Cathedral, and thirty-six are now in their places, including Pope Gregory the Great, Archbishops; Kings Alfred, Edmund, Canute, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, William II., Henry I, Henry II., Edward III. Henry VIII., Edward VI., Charles I. the Black Prince, and Queen Victoria and the late Prince Consort Albert, Bishop Ridley, and Dean Stanhope.
The Son of Man statue stands outside
Canterbury Cathedral in the grounds.
Son of Man is a name used by
Jesus to refer to himself. The statue is an unusual one and quite
unlike the usual depictions of Jesus. Artist David McFall created
this statue and completed it in 1988 as his own life came to an end.
Main Entrance to Canterbury Cathedral here,
A pivotal moment in the history of the
Cathedral was the murder of the archbishop, Thomas Becket, in the
north-west transept on 29 December 1170 by knights of King
Henry II. The king had frequent conflicts with the strong-willed
Becket and is said to have exclaimed in frustration, "Who will
rid me of this turbulent priest?" The knights took it literally
and murdered Becket in his own cathedral.
After the death of Thomas Becket, the
number of pilgrims visiting the city rose rapidly. There were
several tales of miraculous healing. Beckett was canonised as a
saint.
On 12 July 1174, in the midst of the
Revolt of 1173–1174, King Henry himself walked barefoot to the
shrine and allowed himself to be flogged as public penance at
Becket's tomb.
Beckett was buried in the crypt. In
1220, Becket's bones were moved to a new gold-plated and bejewelled
shrine behind the high altar in the Trinity Chapel. Pilgrims flocked
and showered gems in the shrine when they got healed.
It was destroyed in 1538, during the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, on orders from King Henry VIII. The
king also destroyed Becket's bones and ordered that all mention of
his name be obliterated. 26 cartloads of treasure, representing gifts
from centuries of grateful pilgrims, were carried off and
appropriated by the king. One such treasure was the Regale of France,
a great ruby donated by Louis VII, which Henry had made into a thumb
ring. Today a candle burns at the site of the former shrine. Before
the candle in Saint Beckett shrine is a pinkish stone set into the
floor, which bears the marks of thousands of pilgrims who knelt there
to worship at Becket's shrine.
The impact of the sheer number of
medieval pilgrims on the cathedral can be seen; the staircase leading
up to the south ambulatory - known as Trinity Stair - is worn into
undulating waves by the passage of their feet and knees.
Christ Church Gateway:
This is the Entrance from the City to Canterbury
Cathedral Grounds
Christ Church Gateway is decorated with heraldic motifs, including coats of arms and mythical beasts. The original Tudor turrets were removed in 1830 but rebuilt in 1937.
At the centre, above the gateway arch, is a very large brass figure of Christ flanked by a row of angels.... This is a modern statue, replacing the original statue which was damaged during the Civil War by Parliamentary troops. Apparently the troops decided to use the statue for target practice, then, not content with the damage they had inflicted, attached ropes to the statue and pulled it down.
There are two doors through the gate; a large door to the right, and a much smaller portal to the left. Both doors are beautifully carved and embellished with more heraldic symbols.
has closeup pics with the details clearly seen.
This is St Thomas of Canterbury Roman Catholic
Church (1791)
it is believed to be the oldest post-Reformation
Catholic parish church in the country. It was erected immediately
after the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1791, which allowed Catholics
to practise their religion, but with restrictions. Steeples, bells, in fact anything that
made a building look too much like a church, were forbidden. As a
result, St Thomas's has a very plain exterior, and looks more like a
Quaker Meeting House than a Catholic church.
It was well past 8PM... we contemplated
staying at Canterbury as we were going past Canterbury to Dover the
next day...but decided against it.
We had a return ticket to Bearsted
station from Canterbury west station... it had been for £17 (a word
about British trains— return ticket and a single ticket cost the
same!! you can't do an open jaw trip cheaply—also shorter trips
sometimes are more expensive—- the short distance between Bearsted
and Canterbury did not warrant this price... another fact
Canterbury has 2 stations—east and west.)
We also had a return ticket from
Bearsted to London Victoria which we had bought for £21.
Getting local guidance , we walked to
Canterbury west station—- to our luck, train to London Victoria
pulled up... we decided our combined tickets should see us through
and the staff who came around to check the tickets nodded.... woof...
we reached Victoria by 9.30 PM, took the tube to our hotel.
We had missed seeing the famous stained
glass windows of the Canterbury Cathedral— had to console ourselves
that we had the privilege of attending the mass for free!!
What a day!!!
REPORT OF OUR TRIP TO DOVER CASTLE THE NEXT DAY IS HERE:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/08/uk-trip-report-day-9-london-day-trip-to.html
REPORT OF OUR TRIP TO DOVER CASTLE THE NEXT DAY IS HERE:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/08/uk-trip-report-day-9-london-day-trip-to.html
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