Plymouth

Apologies, some of the next posts will not have the accustomed levels of photographs – forgetting phone, heat exhaustion and inertia – one or all of those. As the country is in the middle of a massive heatwave, all the grass looks like the African Savanna.

To Plymouth (the original one, in Devon, for any Americans thinking of rocks…)

Saltram house near Plympton on the outskirts of Plymouth. Only one photo, but details are here https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/saltram#Overview

Nesting swallows in the gatehouse, remarkably unconcerned about the numbers of people passing underneath.

Coffee by the harbour – nice view of the Navy dockyard – and across on the Torpoint chain ferry.

View across the harbour
Coffee in the sunshine
The naval dockyards.
Torpoint chain ferry
The chain pulling us across

Then to Antony, another National Trust house, just in Cornwall, where the site has been lived on by the same family for 600 years. The current house was built in 1720 but a lot of the furnishings are older than that and presumably came from the previous house. Apparently the NT owns the house but the family still lives there and they own the furnishings. An interesting arrangement (which I presume wouldn’t happen today) and you have to hope that they don’t decide to sell up and do a midnight flit.

The house with rolling brown lawns.
Wonderful 19C alabaster vase in the porch.
The entrance hall
The entrance hall. The portrait over the fireplace is of Charles I, painted during his trial. The modern picture on the left is a fabulous photo of the black walnut tree on the lawn.
Ship shaped salt cellar on the dining table.
Chinese figures over the mantelpiece. Ancient figures bought by the family recently.
16C blackwork pillowcase. The embroidery is exquisite although, as it is framed behind glass, the photo doesn’t do it justice.
Sculpture in the garden
The house with famous yew pyramid – as seen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
350 year old black walnut tree.
Inside the walnut tree canopy.
The landscape was laid out by Humphrey Repton.

One thought on “Plymouth”

  1. That’s a heck of a vase! The only thing is that putting it into the porch, a space that folk are ushered in and out of, there probably isn’t the chance to stop and really examine all sides of it. It looks like something you would find new detail in every time you looked. Thanks for sharing.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to baebell Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.