The Ham Nomads

4 Sep 2014. <GB-ENG> Plympton, Plymouth City —

A day that started out much as yesterday, with a haze that never really left us. We drove a considerable distance eastward, to Saltram House, a National Trust estate just out of Plymouth. The Garmin took us on a rather hair-raising journey through narrow lanes, but we finally got there, in time for lunch!

We went straight in to the café, where Susie was going to have a scone and Warren a pasty — "Sorry, pasties are off, love" — so Warren had a mushroom and garlic rarebit instead.

Then we went in to the house itself. This is a Georgian mansion, built and furnished by the Parkers, an ambitious family who served in Parliament, in the royal court, and on the battlefield (particularly in the Boer War). There's a great comment in the guidebook — "Some made money, others married money and several were very adept at spending money."

The exterior of the house is Palladian, in light Mediterranean colours. It sits in grounds that fully complement its style. The gardens are truly magnificent, having been much influenced by Nathaniel Richmond, a protégé of the legendary Lancelot 'Capability' Brown who pioneered the English style of garden landscaping.

We walked out along an avenue of lime trees till we found a folly in the form of a castle. The folly is basically a very comfortable, sunny room that takes full advantage of the views across to the River Plym — but it has a generous fireplace, so you could also enjoy the cooler autumnal days from this vantage point.

Within the house, two of the rooms of the house were designed by Robert Adam (the saloon and the library, now the dining room) and are amongst the finest of his work. On the ground floor, one of the main impacts is the plasterwork. The ceilings and the walls are resplendent with Graeco-Roman gods and putti (cherubs) involved with the arts. There are paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Angelica Kauffmann and by Rubens. There's furniture by Chippendale — and a lot of Wedgewood porcelain. In short, the whole place epitomises the best of late 18th century fine and decorative arts. A pleasant piece of news — apparently the National Trust has now relaxed its blanket ban on photography within its properties, so Warren was able to take quite a few shots inside the house.

After spending a couple of hours being totally blown away by the spendour of this place, we left to make our way further afield — mainly to do a 3-day shop, and then spend a little time at Macca's to bring the blog further up-to-date. (Please bear in mind the considerable sacrifice Warren makes, enduring MacDonald's food in order to keep you guys up-to-date with our travels!) We then went on to a layby on the A380, just short of the River Teign — not one of our best stops, as the traffic was heavy, constant, fast, and close — but we slept through it all!

Distance driven — today, 111 miles ( 178 km ); to date, 7,040 miles ( 11,330 km )