The Ham Nomads

22 Oct 2014. <GB-ENG> Blickling, & Hevingham (Forest), Norf —

Today as we were having breakfast in our Hevingham Forest retreat when a car pulled up. There was a lot of noise and, when we investigated, there were two women in a small car, with six dogs with them to walk. Apparently they usually come in two cars, but the larger vehicle has broken down. Must say, the Brits really love their dogs!

Today, as mentioned yesterday, we went to Blickling Estate, the companion to Felbrigg Hall. Blickling was the residence of the Boleyn family, and it is reputed that Anne Boleyn was born here.It was later (in 1616) by the Hobart family, who retained it until the last of the Hobarts left it to the National Trust in 1940. He, Phillip Henry, the 11th Marquess of Lothian, had been campaigning for ways for families to leave their estates to the nation rather than pay the iniquitous death duties imposed on them. By the way, the Brits have a funny way with language. 'Hobart' is pronounced 'Hubbard'. Tasmanians (Taswegians? Tasmaniacs?) take note!

The weather was a lot kinder, and we decided to do an estate walk before venturing into the Hall. There are at least three of them, and we decided to combine the Green Walk (by the lake) and the Blue Walk (through the forest, past the mausoleum, the deer park and the tower before returning to the house itself. Quite a walk — it took us 2½ hours! The lake is natural, and surrounded by reed-beds. There was a flock of geese in residence on the water, and we were the fascinated onlookers to an out-and-out brawl between two of the birds. The others all gathered around and were making a lot of noise — were they cheering on one or other of the combatants, or were they protesting that the peace of their morning was being so rudely disturbed?

We walked round to the mausoleum, a strange limestone edifice in the middle of the forest. The second earl of Buckinghamshire (1723-93) is interred there, with his two (consecutive!) wives, Mary Anne and Caroline. There is space for two more tombs here, but this has never been made use of. The external pyramidal shape hides the fact that within, you have a domed ceiling!

We walked further, across a field towards a tower that apparently has superb views from the top, but unfortunately it is being let by the Trust as holiday flats, so is closed to the public. We walked further, getting views of the front of the house from a distance, and finally got back to the car park. Settled in there for lunch before going in to the Hall itself.

The Long Room
(The librarian is at the desk at the left.)

Won't describe everything inside — let's just say that it is opulence personified! It was a Wednesday, and on Wednesdays the room guides go all out and dress up in costume, playing the parts of people from the history of the house. But must mention the Long Gallery. It was originally set up to display all the family portraits, but in 1745 the 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire inherited the library of a distant kinsman, Sir Richard Ellys, 3rd Bt. of Nocton in Lincolnshire. He then converted the Long Room to house this collection. The collection is still all but complete, and is the most important book collection in the hands of the National Trust. For the last ten years they have been working on the descriptive cataloguing of all these rare books, and they still have a long way to go. Warren had a long chat with the librarian, who was in the process of cataloguing four of the books as they spoke! And the ceiling of the Long Room — we were warned a couple of rooms earlier of its 'Wow' factor, and they were right!

Leaving the house, we went out to the gardens. It was getting late, but we had time to walk through the parterres, out to the Orangery and to the Temple. There are two sets of eight radiating avenues to either side of the avenue leading from the house to the Temple, and we explored the southern set. It was getting too late to spend time in the other part. As it was, we left the gardens just before they were closed for the day!

After a most energetic walking day, we adjourned once again to our retreat in the Hevingham Forest.

Distance driven — today, 33 miles ( 53 km ); to date, 9,105 miles ( 14,653 km )