Old London Town!

London today!

Spent the morning doing some house keeping on the Common overlooking the very pleasant town of Dorking. Not too hot early but got a lot warmer the closer we got to London. The Brits are beside themselves with this sort of weather for their end-of-summer long weekend. 

Our trip into London, not something we look forward to on a Friday afternoon, took a different route to the one we would normally take. Our journey today took us to Camberwell and Maddie's house.

Maddie and Laura at their flat in Camberwell - an early start to the long weekend. 

Some interesting moments with the outstanding one being Google maps turning us into a street where the height limit was 2.6 metres! This was interesting as we were in very very heavy traffic! We stopped, horns started blasting, our hazard lights went, and the driver left the vehicle!!! Not much sympathy from the other drivers but what can you do! After a while some saw the necessity for common sense and allowed us room to back out!   All in a days driving!!!

From the very pretty Dorking to ...

... to the frantic London traffic ...

... also competing pizza delivery drivers taking space in front of us!

Arrived at Maddie's place in Camberwell where she had a working-from-home day. Lovely to see her and Laura and their flat.

The Shard on our way to London Bridge. 

The beautiful Thames embankment. 

Spent an hour with them before facing the last stretch of the journey to the City. Five miles in one hour! Arriving in Fann Street we were able to park in our usual weekend spot and settled down for a three day layover! 

Part of the new skyline of The City - the Cheese Grater. and the Walkie-Talkie. 

Later Maddie, Laura, James  and Gerda came around and we had a very entertaining session in Hilton before moving on to a great Italian restaurant around near Old Street. Very enjoyable company and excellent food. 

The girls at the restaurant -Helene, Maddie and Laura. 

Home to bed after midnight! How lovely it is to catch up with Maddie and James. A great night! 

On our way home we came across Mr Fox!

Unseasonal Brits!

It's officially a heatwave!  Well, so we heard today, two days of over 30 degrees  officially constitutes a heatwave. Must say, though, it has been a little hot and  humid - something not associated with the U.K.  

We seem to be getting later each morning, but we have deliberately slowed our pace. 

Today we visited Hatchland Park, just north-east of Guilford. An interesting Georgian house with an outstanding collection of piano-type instruments from very famous people in history eg, Napoleon. It also houses one of the few portraits of Shakespeare painted in his lifetime - presumably he sat for the artist. 

Titled, Playwright! 

Pianos and paintings - quite spectacular displays. 

Hatchland, an elegant Georgian home "built from the money of defeated enemy". 

Interesting to note that a TV production team had set up their base at Hatchland. We found out that the series "Call the Midwife" was shooting scenes. 

Seemed that each actor had their own trailer! Plus, a food canteen seemed to be operating most of the day. 

Later drove on to Ranmore Common for our overnight stop. 

Along the Surrey Hills were some special views. 

And some special villages, like Gomshall. 

And another Gomshall inn. 

And good things come in threes at Gomshall!

At Abinger Hammer this lovely timeless timepiece. 

"The clock which overhangs the main road portrays the figure of "Jack the Blacksmith", who strikes the hour with his hammer. The clock bears the motto "By me you know how fast to go". The clock was given in memory of the first Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall who died in 1899. The clock represents the iron industry and the role played by the county of Surrey in the industrial past." (Wikipedia)

Precious Petworth

Petworth House and Park - just magnificent! The visit was greatly assisted by the equally beautiful day. The hottest day this summer!

The grand staircase at Petworth. 

Just a small slice of the collection at Petworth House. 

A relatively slow morning in Midhurst. We were positioned in a lovely shaded spot so the unusual weather didn't over heat the van. 

Late morning we drove on to Petworth, gained a parking space under some great 300-year old oak trees before we visited the Petworth Mansion. 

A gnarled 300-year old oak in the grounds at Petworth. 

Petworth houses the National Trust's finest and most valuable collection of art, with the 4th Century BC's Leconsfield Aphrodite by Praxiteles being the National Trust most valuable sculpture. 

The unassuming Leconsfield Aphrodite modestly sitting on a sideboard at Petworth. 

By the time we arrived the car park of this very popular property was filling up fast. With the temperature quickly rising to obscene levels for the UK this time of the year, we parked under some of "Capability" Brown's oak trees and enjoyed a leisurely drink before facing the site-seeing shuffle. 

Some consider this a beautifully natural parkland. It is difficult to argue against this! 

The art collection is absolutely outstanding - with the 16th and 17th Century owners being great collectors of art from Europe during their Grand Tours, and also being great patrons of artists of the quality of Turner and van Dyke. There are numerous of these artists' paintings in the collection. 

 Funnily enough, the Red Room! Walls covered with paintings. 

Van Dykes' paintings of Charles I and his wife, the French Princess Henrietta Maria.  

A painting of Petworth at Petworth. 

 European Royals at Petworth. The Prince Regent, Tsar Alexander I, Thre Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, Freserick William III of Prussia,  Prince of Wuttenburg - after the Peace of Paris 1814. 

The sculpture gallery was also quite outstanding with many Roman copies of the original Greek statues. 

Being the 300th anniversary of the birth "Capability" Brown, a display highlighting his work was available for people to ponder. His reputation is certainly intact but the authors of the display didn't shy away from some of the negative impacts of his visions - namely, uprooting whole villages to create his natural park gardens. The landscape in front of Petworth House certainly doesn't enhance Capabilities reputation. 

Capability's wasteland at the front entrance to Petworth which had once been a delightful parterre garden.

We took a walk through the very pretty village of Petworth. The town grew up around Petworth House with a dependence on the house for labour and support. 

The Petworth church and laneway. 

Cobbled stone alleys.... 

...  and lovely doorways. 

As the temperature rose into the 30s we hastily retreated to the shade of the earlier discovered oak trees, had lunch and a rest before heading up the road to Godalming for our overnight stop. 

South Downs

Final day of our wanderings through Hampshire, and through the South Downs.  Many lovely villages and towns on our route. Places like Petersfield and South Harting would be worth another visit at a later stage. 

In the South Downs we visited two properties with outstanding gardens. Both these houses saw the crippling effects of fire in the 20th Century. 

The first of these was Hinton Ampner, an early 20th Century restoration in a Georgian style. Just before the restoration  had been completed the property was requisitioned  by the government as a wartime priority! 

Part of the  beautiful gardens at Hinton Ampner. 

The magnificent Georgian reception room. (Columns are made from wood and coated to appear to be marble!)

Valuable objects collected on many of their Grand Tours

The dining room - most aristocratic houses had their own porcelain dinner sets, with their own coats of arms, made in China. Canton porcelain makers were making, to order, two two-hundred piece dinner settings each fortnight and shipping them to Europe. 

Even wine coolers!

Wonderful setting with great views across   the wooded South Downs. 

Colourful walks around the garden. 

Very old espaliered apple trees. 

The ha-ha at Hinton Ampner - the small brick wall stopping the native wildlife from getting into the garden without spoiling the view! It wouldn't be too effective with some of our critters. 

We moved on to Uppark House and Garden for lunch and a visit to the house. The outstanding position of this house is the most impressive feature. Located on a hill on the Sourh Downs you can see the English Channel and Portsmouth.

Uppark House situated in a prime location.

The 300-year old dolls house is one of the interesting items in the collection. It is thought to have been more of an adult plaything than something for children. 

Uppark was built in the 17th Century and furnished from family members collections during their Grand Tours. Many of these items are still on display throughout the house. 

One of the family, Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, caused a scandal in marrying his dairymaid. He also was involved with the notorious  Emma Hamilton when she was just a sixteen year old. Interesting to see the marketing material which says she was one of the guests to visit the house! Harry actually set her up in a small house on the estate. 

A very stately house. 

The writer H G Wells spent much of his childhood at Uppark - his mother was the house keeper. He refers to Uppark in a number of his books, and it is even thought that for the book The Time Machine he took the underground tunnel as its inspiration. 

We later traveled on to the village of Midhurst for our overnight. 

MOT Day

It was an early start this morning as Hilton had an appointment for his annual check-up (MOT)! It is always a traumatic time for Hilton because of the little flexibility of the "practice" that he attends. So, we left Hilton just before 9.00 am in the hands of his annual checker. 

We left him to face his demons alone and took a walk into Andover. Little had changed since we were here last year. We were entertained by a mum who let her children run an absolute riot whilst others were trying to enjoy a cup of coffee. The children's behaviour hardly changed after every threat that was roared across the coffee shop! This went on for over an hour. We should have been paid to have a coffee here! But it was entertaining!

A couple of hours later we had a call to say that Hilton had no reason to be anxious and that he passed the MOT. 

When we arrived back at the garage we were informed that for a short time the MOT had failed - yeah, a small light over the number plate has blown! This is the crazy thing - we had booked the van in for a full service with the request that anything that was not working then fix it!  (That's what we were paying for!) But for some reason that doesn't take priority - the MOT takes precedence over a full service! But it all worked out eventually. 

We drove away to buy some supplies but we were back to the garage almost immediately because we could hear a knocking in our steering! It wasn't there before taking it to the garage - they were quite happy to check it all out and found the recalcitrant steering spring! So, off we went again but a little  more attentive to the steering noise - all seemed to be well.

We were now able to get on the road and venture south where we stopped off in the old market town of Stockbridge.  It is said that the broad high street reflects that Stockbridge was once a stopping off point for herds of sheep and cattle being driven from Wales to southern England. 

The very special pub, The Three Cups Inn, part of the pictureque high street in Stockbridge. 

The beautiful sunny beer garden behind the facade of The Three Cups Inn. 

The Test River runs through the High Street - ducks and trout are visible swimming along the river here. 

Later in the afternoon we drove on to Mottisfont where we visited the property that was once a monastery but was ordered to be demolished during the English reformation. The monastery was partly demolished and a medieval "barn-conversion" took place to arrive at the structure we have today. It became famous during the early twentieth century for the artist and cultural connections and partying. Such people like Ian Fleming were frequent visitors. 

Mottisfont House - very engaging for all ages. 

The two sides of Mottisfont- the west front 13th century monastic wall and the east front  Tudor and Georgian "barn conversion"!

The Beatrix Potter exhibition here at Mottisfont offered plenty for adults and younger visitors. Throughout the grounds children were asked to find all the hidden "houses" with characters from the Potter books. 

Mottisfont with a very scenic waterway through the grounds. 

More of Mottisfont.  

Remains of the monastery at Mottisfont. 

And part of the front garden. 

We later drove on to Eastleigh for our overnight stop. 

The beautiful Hampshire landscape on our drive today.