An English Summer: Day Seven, Wimpole in Cambridgeshire



Wimpole House

 Wonderful day. Weather was the most peculiarly changeable I've ever seen even in England, which is saying a great deal.  Apparently it was because of Hurricane Bertha passing over, for every half hour whoosh! there was another change. Golden sunshine, blustery splatters of rain, then sun again. Rather fun actually. Slept extremely well, and in morning Jan and I went out for cappuccino and a monumental English breakfast. Then we walked to the outdoor Cambridge market, which is lovely and great fun, and to various shops to buy a present for her grandson's third birthday. It was that moment when you've known somebody for years and suddenly you find yourself shopping not for the children but the grandchildren; they appear in a new light, as, to be sure, also happens much earlier in life when friends start having children in the first place.  (We settled on a wooden train set and a helicopter.) After a tea shop stop, Harriett's near King's, to take in yet another in the row of Victoria sponges I feel it essential to cram in this trip, we went back for a rest.

A good start to the day! 

So happy to be in Cambridge.

In the afternoon Jan and Derek and I drove out to Wimpole Hall, a beautiful country house about eight miles outside Cambridge. It rained and sunned alternately, but we mostly managed to be inside the  house during the spatters, and out in the gorgeous gardens during the sunny parts. The house, the largest in Cambridgeshire, was given to the National Trust by Rudyard Kipling's daughter, but it belonged to the Earl of Oxford and Lord Hardwicke before that, and the magnificent library in particular is a sight to behold. There's a grand Yellow Drawing Room designed by Sir John Soane, and the house is altogether a storehouse of treasures.



Walking into Wimpole

Beautiful library

Library ceiling

 Beautiful books

A superb collection of Gilrays.

Wonderful curios

Queen Victoria visited Wimpole House



It's as beautiful outside as in, with vast grounds including a sweeping formal grand avenue that goes for literally miles, that Capability Brown put his touch on; and gardens galore. We spent most of our time in the 18th century walled garden, bursting with flowers, that had been only slightly flattened by the occasional bursts of rain. These lush and colorful blossoms were a contrast with the more geometric formal gardens closer to the house, and the long views down the avenue set both off amazingly.



 View from the window

View five minutes later!



And ten minutes after that!



 For me, a favorite feature of such a great English country house, is seeing the verdant views framed in the windows, as overwhelmingly beautiful as any of the paintings inside. It's that great house indoor/outdoor feeling which Jane Austen captures perfectly in this passage in Mansfield Park:

"The lower part of the house had been now entirely shown, and Mrs. Rushworth, never weary in the cause, would have proceeded towards the principal stair-case, and taken them through all the rooms above, if her son had not interposed with a doubt of there being time enough. "For if," said he, with the sort of self-evident proposition which many a clearer head does not always avoid—"we are too long going over the house, we shall not have time for what is to be done out of doors. It is past two, and we are to dine at five."Mrs. Rushworth submitted, and the question of surveying the grounds, with the who and the how, was likely to be more fully agitated, and Mrs. Norris was beginning to arrange by what junction of carriages and horses most could be done, when the young people, meeting with an outward door, temptingly open on a flight of steps which led immediately to turf and shrubs, and all the sweets of pleasure-grounds, as by one impulse, one wish for air and liberty, all walked out."

So, walking out in a burst of sunshine, we strolled over to the 18th century walled garden, a beautiful and old-fashioned delight. 

Pictures in the Walled Garden

Jan and Derek

 

 



And then we walked back to the house and strolled around the formal gardens, enjoying their arrangement, and the long views...

Pictures in the Formal Garden

 
 



 

Beyond the gate of the formal gardens, you could see the farm animals...

With such miles of grounds, and the haphazard weather, we did not attempt to go to so far as the lakes or the Gothic folly, but I am assured that there is a great deal more to see!



Back in Cambridge, Jan and I went to the local pub in the evening and I tucked into most excellent fish and chips,  though she did look somewhat askance at my non alcoholic berry cider...

Pub art. With a cat!



An English Summer: Day Six: The Dorothy L. Sayers Conference in Cambridge

Gargoyle at medieval St. Wendreda church, in the village of March, Cambridgeshire

 

So excited at being here I didn't sleep very well, but Jan walked me into town, stopping for coffee on the way.  It's probably a half-mile or so to Downing College, but a lovely walk across Cambridge, and the college is very serene and beautiful, too, in 18th century Palladian style.  I was there for the annual Dorothy L. Sayers conference, and here are the notes that I wrote up afterwards for the Lord Peter Wimsey (LordPeter@yahoogroups.com) and Piffle lists (Piffle@yahoogroups.com), members of both of whom went to the conference.

 

Downing College
 

 

 St. Clements Church, Outwell

 

I was lucky enough to spend yesterday at the Dorothy L. Sayers Society AGM in Cambridge. It was a glorious golden day such as Lewis Carroll used to write about happening at The Other Place, and equally filled with gargoyles. By those, I don't mean the dear Piffle and Lord Peter people (and some Girls Own list people) it was delightful to see after so long. I will fail if I try to mention them all, but there was Alan Jesson of course, Big Ruby Solitaire (Claiborne Ray), The College Cat and Tom (Gillian and Gregory Hill - well I called him Tom, not sure if he liked it, and not exactly sure if his name is actually Gregory either), Kate Lambert, Catherine McKiernan, Lesley Simpson, and most warmly for me, old friend the Half-Hedgehog (Robin Leidner), with whom I used to correspond on Sayers and the Jews and Sadie Schuster-Slatt. (Miss Schuster-Slatt, the irritating American outsider, has long been my "nom" on the lists.)
 

 

Along the Fens

 

 



The Fens as seen from the Bus

 

I  wasn't staying at Downing College but with professor friends elsewhere in the city, but it did mean I had to walk half across the city to get there, so only arrived sadly rudely in the midst of Alan's charming talk. I did hear the young engineering gentleman who told us all about the mechanics of fens and sluices and locks and guillotine doors, which was a most lively, interesting talk. His wife is expecting momentarily, and the lady who introduced him made a very funny joke about childbirth and sluices that doesn't come across somehow when I try to tell it.

 

Rev. Alan Jesson's talk



The College Cat and the Half-Hedgehog

 

Claiborne and me 

 

Half-Hedgehog at St. Wendreda's

 

Mrs. Christopher Deane (right)

There was a very nice lunch, sandwiches and bhaji and things, and scrumptious meringues with strawberries, and then at 1 PM we set out in two coaches on the Fens tour. The countryside looked so green and lovely as we drove first to St. Clement's Church, Outwell, then St. Peter's Church, Upwell (where I have visited before, when Alan was still rector there), and lastly the Church of Saint Wendreda in March. All were glorious, and at St. Clements we were treated to tea and perfectly lovely cakes baked by parishioners. I bought a set of postcards showing the medieval demon and Apostle wood carvings that adorn the church. I found St. Wendreda's extremely interesting, too. This is the church of which John Betjeman said it was "worth cycling 40 miles in a head wind to see." It was founded to honor St. Wendreda in the 7th century, and I was very taken by her name and those of her sisters, Etheldreda and Sexburgha, which would do very well as alternate names for our cats. (Pindar would be Wendreda, Martial Ethel, and little demon Catullus, Sexburgha.) Anyway, the building is mainly 14th century and the double hammerbeam interior angel roof of 1523 with 120 carved angels is a wonder. I actually preferred the gargoyles studded all over the outside of this very curious and marvelous place.

 

A delicious, churchy tea

 

 

An elegant dinner

We were back at the College by 6:30, for drinks on the lovely lawn and then dinner in the handsome hall, everyone dressed elegantly. Very fine dinner, too: salad lyonnaise, lamb with red wine cabbage and dates, and cake with sorbet. As it was dark and I was very tired from the day I rather wisely took a cab home!

Miss Schuster-Slatt

The famous double hammerbeam angel roof at St. Wendreda's

 

 Gargoyles at St. Wendreda's

 



Cambridgeshire view from the bus...Oh England!