A very dapper house

Can a house be dapper?

If it is indeed possible, Montacute House in southern Somerset, would surely take the cake. Or bow tie & bowler hat, probably.

We visited last month, and it was well worth the drive down there from north Wiltshire. Look at that driveway! In fact, the whole village is picture perfect.

The 'grandness' of Montacute is especially impressive as it was originally built by a family of yeomen farmers who rose in status to become one of the preeminent families in the district. Montacute has a long history and consequently a roll call of notable tenants. Once home to Sir Edward Phelips, a key prosecutor against the gunpowder plotters, and for a short while, Lord Curzon.

The yew hedges in the formal gardens are almost as handsome as the house, at the very least they are tall, well groomed and in places quite quirky, very befitting of a house such as Montacute.

These days, Montacute boasts a small collection of works owned or entrusted to the National Portrait Gallery. They hang in what is the longest 'long gallery' in England. At 53 metres in length, it runs the entire width of the house, and was once used as a sort of exercise room. When the weather was too bad to be outdoors, the family would walk up and down the gallery to get their daily steps in. Pre pedometer times call for such measures I suppose.

The lawn was being put to good use the afternoon we visited. A group of silver-haired locals had gathered to play croquet. If it weren't for their 21st Century attire, I am sure the scene would have looked not unlike that of a summer afternoon a century or two ago. 

The everlasting sweet peas were living up to their name, still in flower and reaching high, even at the very end of summer.

This is what passed for graffiti in the 18th Century. And in the library no less!

See those quirky yew hedges, trimmed to imitate the irregular shapes of clouds perhaps? I love how they're allowed to grow into that undulating, almost pulsing, formation along the pathway.

An Elizabethan mansion is always going to be predictably impressive, but Montacute House is beautifully kept and somehow 'elevated' above other homes of the same era that I've visited. It might be the orderly garden with just the right amount of quirk. It might be the collection of exquisite and historically important portraits. Or it might just be that sweeping driveway, emphasising the perfect symmetry of the house.

What ever the magic of Montacute, I stand by the 'dapper' description.

Kate  x

In praise of Capability Brown + autumn at Wimpole Hall

It's a winning combination. 

One thing Capability got right was parklands. I mean everything he did was spot on, but the parklands he envisaged have established so beautifully and sympathetically- they seem so effortless in their execution, like they formed naturally and not from the vision of one man. Such was his genius. To see those parklands in mid autumn is spectacular. To walk them in atmospheric drizzle, as the leaves softly fall around you and your shoes get muddy is even better. 

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The front aspect. 

From here, the house looks out over a 2 and a half mile grand avenue of uninterrupted countryside, adding to it's bold and assertive presence and unmistakable grandeur.

The house was begun in 1640, and the estate consists of 3000 acres of parklands and a still working farm.

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The rear boasts perfectly geometrical garden beds in a formal jardin a la francaise style. A lovely contrast to the pockets of woodland in the North Park.

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Looking out from a first floor window across the North Park. The focal point in the distance is a Gothic folly.

In addition to Earls and Viscounts, the house has had other notable owners, including Elsie Bambridge, daughter of Rudyard Kipling, who bequeathed the estate to the National Trust upon her death. One of Mr Kipling's luggage trunks is still in the Stewards quarters at the bottom of the house.

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Inside is just as grand as you would expect from an estate of this calibre.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Wimpole Hall in 1843:

Lamps had been placed all the way along the drive and the front of the Hall was illuminated as the Queen was greeted at the steps, covered in crimson cloth, by the Earl and Countess at twenty-five minutes to six. The Queen and Prince were given two rooms on the first floor facing south to use as drawing rooms, and a breakfast room on the north front. For a dressing room Lady Hardwicke's boudoir, looking out over the elm avenue, was used; next was the royal bedroom and further along the Prince's dressing room; other rooms on the same floor were allotted to her entourage, and they used the private staircase. All these rooms had been specially redecorated for the occasion, and the great State Bed had the initials of Queen and Prince (V&A) worked somehow to each of the four supporters. A white lace coverlet was lined with green silk, and the hangings, according to a correspondent, were 'of elegant chintz with a white ground.'

From HERE.

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The walled gardens are, like the rest of the estate, vast. Inside the walls are flower gardens, an orchard, vegetable and herb plots, as well as a winter garden. Much of the produce grown here supplies the cafes and farm shop restaurant on the estate. Wimpole is still a working farm with rare breed livestock and wheat the main focus.

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Gardening gloves hanging out to dry, one of many indications that Wimpole Hall is still a living, functioning farm.

I loved it, muddy boots and all, 

but I was very grateful to have my new raincoat.

Here's to Capability on the 300th anniversary of his birth. He has left a beautiful legacy.

Kate  x