So, Saturday. We set out for Hanbury Hall in Droitwich, Worcestershire. It took us a little over 30 min of blindly following the sat nav. The last ten minutes or so were on some ridiculously narrow and windy roads. We were lucky the couple times we met head on with other cars we were relatively close to turnouts - otherwise one of us would have had to back up for a loooooong time. Of course, I loved the cute little roads, but Jeff spent most of that part of the drive swearing at the sat nav for taking us on such a foolish route. Word to the wise, not the time to say things like "It's an adventure!!" "Sheep!!" "This is so fun!" "Please slow down." "More sheep!!"
The sun came out a little bit, which was a pleasant surprise. The place was reasonably crowded and staffed by an army of old people. Apart from a few "senior moments" (their words, not mine!), they really knew their stuff. It amazes me that people become so immersed in the history of a family that, to be honest, never really did anything remarkable. I can't remember a lot of the details, but I do know there was a fair amount of remodeling that happened at one point, which I can appreciate. The house was completed in 1706 by Thomas Vernon, a lawyer. A local historian of the time wrote "“Here is a large handsome house built by Counsellor Vernon about the year 1710 when a bad style of architecture prevailed; many windows and doors, rooms small, many closets, few arched cellars, large stables and offices in full view, are marks of that time". Hmph - what's wrong with a lot of windows and closets?? The rooms were quite small though so it's no wonder Emma Vernon wanted to change things when she married and took over the house in 1776.
The house continued to pass through the hands of Vernons until Sir George Vernon inherited it. His marriage was an unhappy one and his wife lived at another property, while Sir George lived at Hanbury Hall with his secretary and companion, Ruth Horton. Ruth was actually a farmer's daughter whose education had been paid for by Sir George. The guides described her as an "adopted daughter" but methinks it might have been slightly more than that, considering Sir George's estranged wife. Anyway, by 1940 he had become quite ill with cancer and a host of other things and shot himself in The Blue Bedroom. Quel drame! His wife, Lady Doris, took the opportunity to move back in to Hanbury Hall. Unfortunately, the house had fallen into some disrepair and was a nightmare to heat (not to mention almost completely empty since Sir George had left Lady Doris the house, while leaving Ruth its contents, which she promptly carted off) so Lady Doris spent most of her remaining days in a small sitting room off the main entrance hall. At one point she had as many as 22 cats living with her. In accordance with Sir George's will, the house became the property of the National Trust when Doris died in 1962.
In the living room: a copy of Beethoven's piano made at the same time. The painting of the two little girls is actually of two young male Vernons - in those days people were afraid of having their heirs kidnapped so they dressed them like girls! The carpet is a rare Axminster and is one of four in the world.
I love this color combination.
Lady Doris's sitting room. One of the windows in this room had a hinged pane so her cats could go in and out. The original cat door!
The Blue Bedroom.
Jeff remarked that the British penchant for ugly wallpaper (he encountered his fair share while house-hunting) is not a new one!
The walls of the main hall, up the stairs, and the ceiling of the hall are painted by James Thornhill, who also painted scenes of the life of St. Paul in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. At Hanbury Hall, the paintings depict the life of Achilles. Apparently, at one point Achilles's mom learned that if he went to fight in some war he would surely be killed so she dressed him up as a girl to keep him from having to fight. Jeff had to take issue with Thornhill's skill as "that so does not look like a guy dressed as a girl. It looks like a girl." In fact, Thornhill seems to have gone a little overboard and made Achilles look like a pregnant lady. Or maybe his mom went a little overboard. Maybe Achilles liked it. Who knows.
That's Achilles in the center of the panel on the left. Work-ing-it.
I loved the trompe l'oeil woodwork.
The house was incredibly dark, even in the middle of the afternoon, so the pictures aren't so great. The National Trust is lucky I never inherited this house because I totally would have gone all white-paint crazy on it. Seriously, one small room is painted a shade of white and I practically gasped with delight when I walked in. I wanted to be like "BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE WHITE PAINT" to everyone standing in the room. It was about ten times brighter than the rest of the house. Besides the white room, I think my favorite part of the house may have been the floorboards. They were fabulous. You cannot get floors like this without ripping them out of a house like Hanbury Hall. At least 8 inches wide, super dark, creaky, and with all the dings caused by 300 years of feet.
Right now, the National Trust is very busy restoring the 20 acres of formal gardens to their 18th century glory (a project slated to continue for the next 10 years). In fact, they are using one of the paintings from inside the house to help them recreate the design. So cool! Jeff and I will definitely be back in the summer to check it out.
After touring the house and being filled in on all the Vernon family gossip, Jeff and I stopped at the tea-room for scones with clotted cream and jam and tea before hitting the road.
And on Sunday we did absolutely nothing to make up for our exertions on Saturday.
