Montacute House

Another day, another stately home!  Montacute House is a lovely Jacobean House near to Yeovil in the village of Montacute.  Originally built for the Phileps family who lived there until 1910 when it was sold to pay gambling debts. By then all of the contents had already been sold to raise funds and the house was sold bare.  The house is mostly open, though there are some parts closed to maintain social distancing.  the garden was, frankly, disappointing, though the "wobbly wobbly" yew hedges are unusual to say the least. Apparently their shape goes back to WW2 when all of the gardens were away on war duty, so they weren't trimmed for 6 years. The white peonies were plentiful and beautiful.

Visiting Kingston Lacy

 Today we went to The National Trust property, Kingston Lacy, near to Wimborne.  The house belonged to the Bankse family who built it in the 1660s after their family home at Corfe Castle down the road was asked by the parliamentry troops  during the Civil War.  It remained in the Bankse family until The 1960s when it was left to the National Trust.  In the late 18th century much of the house was redecorated in the Venetian style as a suitable to hold their collection of paintings which include a Caravaggio and several van Dyck family portraits.

The garden seemed, to us, to be in need of some attention (presumably the pandemic has meant the the usual army of NT volunteers have not been available.  However, we were just in time to see some very impressive aliums the size of beachballs and some lovely rhododendrons whose season is nearly over.

The white wisteria grown as a freestanding tree was also an eye-catcher

If anyone can give me an id on the pink blooms at the end of the set,  I'd be grateful.

WG Grace Leads by Example on Great Wilbraham Rec

What a delight to see some cricket (albeit a net practice) on the Rec this afternoon.  WG Grace had turned out to help out some of the youngsters

Caught in flight, keen ly observed by Walter

WG signals a wide off his own bowling before he has released the ball