Stourhead

A journalist contacted me about this blog once. He didn't work for The Wall Street Journal, or even Take a Break magazine, and he didn't want my expert opinion on National Trust scones - he just wanted to let me know that the blog was very disappointing because it wasn't critical enough.

And it is true that I don't keep a list of The Worst National Trust Scones That I Ever Ate In My Life. However, I have had TWO duff NT scone experiences and I have been honest about both of them. So imagine my surprise when I came across a list of the most visited National Trust properties of 2013 and BOTH of my duff scone locations were in the TOP TEN! How can this BE? How can NT properties that are HEAVING with visitors be serving sub-standard scones? Heads should roll.

So the pressure was on today for Stourhead in Wiltshire. It's the third most visited National Trust property - almost 400,000 people trotted along there last year. Would Stourhead prove the rule that more visitors = duff scones?

Before I get onto the scones, let me tell you a bit about Stourhead. 

Stourhead was created by a man called Henry Hoare. His father, Richard, had set up Hoare's Bank in 1672 (which is still going strong on Fleet Street today, banking fact fans) and Henry decided he needed a country estate that would allow him to join the ranks of the landed gentry. He bought a chunk of Wiltshire countryside in 1717 and started work with his brother-in-law, William Benson, to create a Palladian villa.

The house was then handed down through the Hoare family - Henry 'the Good', mentioned above, gave it to his son, Henry 'the Magnificent'. He passed it on to his grandson, Colt Hoare, who handed it on to his half-brother, Henry Hugh. It carried on through various Henrys and Hughs until it reached Henry Hugh Arthur. He had one son, Henry Colt Arthur, who was killed in the First World War. Henry Hugh Arthur and his wife Alda decided to hand the estate and all its contents over to the National Trust in 1946.   

My favourite room in the house was the huge Picture Gallery. This room was added to the house by Colt Hoare in 1802 to show off the Old Masters that he and his grandfather had collected. It's very impressive:

But the best thing about Stourhead is undoubtedly the landscape garden. The walk from the house round the path and back to the house is one of the nicest experiences that I have ever had at the National Trust AND IT WAS RAINING. I can only imagine what it would be like on a sunny day.  

It was Henry 'the Magnificent' Hoare who started work on the garden, after his wife died in 1743. He worked with Henry Flitcroft, a talented architect who helped 'the Mag' to realise his vision.

The centrepiece of the garden is the lake. As you walk around, you come across a variety of buildings and bridges, giving you the idea of being on a journey. This journey idea was exactly what The Magnificent wanted - he was a big fan of Virgil's Aeneid, which is all about Aeneas's journey from Troy to Rome.

One of the buildings is the showstopping Pantheon. It's like a Wendy house version of the actual Pantheon in Rome:

To be fair, it's a bit bigger than a Wendy house but you get the idea - it's just a very accurate miniature version of the real thing:

The grotto is equally as impressive. You enter through a dark little tunnel:

Inside it's dark and atmospheric, with the sound of running water and two striking statues, one of whom is purportedly Tiber, the god of the Roman river:

And there are lots of other sights to see, including a Gothic Cottage. I loved it.

The Stourhead scone
But now let's talk about the other thing I love: scones. Did Stourhead prove the Scone Blogger's Theorem, that the more popular the NT property, the poorer the scone?

Readers, they ditched that theorem into their lake. Consider first the size of the scone: one of the properties that I had a quality issue with was Cliveden, where I almost needed a microscope to see my scone. And I don't feel AT ALL guilty saying that, because six months after I timidly reported that my scone was a bit small and soggy, a correspondent said that he'd just had a scone there and it was small and soggy. So I'm less timid about it because I think it's a bit rubbish for the second most popular National Trust property in England to be ignoring well-meant feedback and knowingly serving poor quality food to its members.

The Stourhead cream tea was literally three times the size of the Cliveden one:

Consider next the taste and texture. The other scone that had quality issues was at Wakehurst. Usually, I'm not one of those people that feels the love (man) in food, but at Wakehurst I could tell a mile off that nobody cared about that scone. Nobody cared that it was hard and dry and unpleasant to eat. And I do feel a bit happier knowing that the National Trust doesn't manage the catering at Wakehurst, but even so - it reflects really badly on them.

The Stourhead scones weren't fresh, but they were very tasty indeed - I thoroughly enjoyed them. The restaurant is beautiful - it's big and airy and run by very friendly people.

And before I get any cease and desist letters from Dame Helen Ghosh, I just want to reiterate that I have eaten nearly 70 National Trust scones and I have only disliked two of them. That's not bad going AT ALL. And I have journalists complaining about it, telling me I need to be more like Alan Sugar! I'm suffering for my art here, Dame Helen. 

Anyway - definitely go to Stourhead, people, it's fantastic.

Stourhead house: 4 out of 5
Stourhead grounds: 5 out of 5
Scones: 4.5 out of 5

The Vyne Revisited

Here's a question: which National Trust property do you think has the best ever claim to fame? There are plenty of contenders, what with all those appearances in Downton Abbey and Wolf Hall and Bargain Hunt. 

For me it's either Moseley Old Hall in Wolverhampton or The Vyne in Hampshire. Moseley Old Hall was where Charles II hid in a priest hole after the Battle of Worcester. Imagine if there was a revolution today and tomorrow evening Prince William turned up at your back door asking you to hide him from Ken Livingstone, or whoever had abolished the monarchy. And the only safe place involved you lifting up the floorboards, pointing to a tiny, dark little hole and saying "er..here?" It's a cracking story - read about it.

But I think The Vyne probably trumps it, because they have a great claim to fame AND a great name. The claim to fame goes like this: in 1785, a gold ring was found in a nearby field. It turned out to be a Roman ring and it was later linked to a tablet found in Gloucestershire cursing the person that had stolen the ring from its owner. 

An archaeologist trying to work out the significance of all of this turned to the Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University. That professor later wrote a couple of books about rings that you might have heard of - his name was J.R.R. Tolkien. And the ring that probably inspired Tolkien is still at The Vyne today - I work with a lot of Americans and I sadly use the word awesome way too much but The Vyne ring is truly deserving of the word. For more about the ring, read my previous post.

ANYWAY. We went back to The Vyne today because it had been semi-shut on our first visit in January 2014 and we didn't get to see the inside of the house. 

The Vyne is a Tudor building, constructed in the 16th century by Lord Sandys, who was Lord Chamberlain to Henry VIII. 

The Sandys family eventually came unstuck and the estate was sold to the marvellously named Chaloner Chute, who was Speaker in the House of Commons during the Commonwealth. His great-grandson John Chute inherited The Vyne in 1754 and he carried out some alterations - he moved the front door and he installed a new staircase, which does come as a bit of a surprise after you've walked through Tudor rooms.

My favourite Tudory room was the Oak Gallery, which is one of the few surviving long galleries from the first half of the 16th century. I liked it mainly because it had rush matting on the floor and it always smells alive, like it would have done at the time. Admittedly it does also smell like a stable but I'm sure there were plenty of smells worse than straw wafting about in the 1500s.

The other really good Tudor room is the chapel. You can't see it in this rubbish picture but the bottom centre window depicts Henry VIII with St Henry. On the left is Catherine of Aragon with St Catherine. On the right is Henry's sister Margaret with St Margaret. You get the idea.

Sir Charles Chute gave the house to the National Trust in 1956. Apparently the family still come back to the house and hold weddings in the chapel.

There was no scone scoring today - I'm taking the quizmaster route when it comes to revisiting National Trust properties and insisting that I take the first scone as their final answer. And that's a shame for The Vyne, as today's scone was wonderful and a big improvement on last year's version.

But that's enough revisiting for now - I've still got 150 odd properties to visit and I need to get a wriggle on. Next weekend I'm aiming for two big visits. In the meantime, let me know of any NT properties with even better claims to fame than my above choices.

A la Ronde

I've always been an enormous fan of souvenir tat. Wherever I go in the world, I always find some little memento that reminds me of my trip (a tip for all you tat fans: Washington DC is the best city in the world for souvenirs). 

Sadly, my tat is not appreciated by those closest to me and is now relegated to a cupboard. When I close the door of that cupboard, eight snow globes from various American cities emit a baleful note or two, just to remind me they are there, including the one I bought in Texas that has a big yellow rose inside it but plays the music from the BBC's snooker coverage.

Two cousins called Jane and Mary Parminter may also have suffered from tat-phobic relatives, because in the 1790s they built AN ENTIRE HOUSE to store their souvenirs of The Grand Tour. The house is called A la Ronde near Exmouth in Devon and it is amazing:

It's astonishing, for three main reasons:

1. It's round
The house has 16 sides, allowing the sun to shine into different rooms at different times of the day. Originally, the sun would have risen in the cousins' bedrooms, before the light moved into the drawing room and then the dining room in time for dinner. What a GENIUS idea. When you think of all those people on Grand Designs building big hangar-shaped blocks - ROUND IS THE ANSWER.

2. The interior

At the centre of the house is the Octagon, a room where the cousins could entertain their guests. A number of other rooms lead onto the Octagon - the Study and Music Room were originally the cousins' bedrooms.

It was very hard to take good photos inside but this is the view from the Octagon through to the dining room - it gives you some idea at least. 

3. The decor
A la Ronde is famous for its Shell Gallery at the top of the house. It is closed to visitors but you can see bits of it thanks to screens and mirrors. The Parminters used glass, pottery, and stones to supplement the shells in creating beautiful decorations.

The ownership of the house has had some interesting twists and turns. When Mary died in 1849, she stipulated that the property could only be passed to unmarried female relatives, which was initially followed. Then it somehow ended up with the Reverend Oswald Reichel, whose widow tried to sell it to a developer, but a relative called Margaret Tudor bought it and opened it to the public in 1935. The National Trust acquired it in 1991.

Because it was pretty much kept in the family, the furnishings and trinkets belong to the place. And although not everything is exactly as the Parminters had it, you still get a real sense of how harmonious it must have been to live in a round house full of beautiful pictures and treasures in a beautiful setting. It's a remarkable place.

But let's move on to the scones. A la Ronde was the 70th stop on the National Trust Scone Odyssey. Yes, that's right - I have somehow managed to visit 70 National Trust properties and trough my way through at least one scone in nearly all of them. 

The one thing that every scone trip has in common is The Moment Of Terror. It never goes away. You can walk into a tea room as nonchalantly as you like but that flash of panic that there might not be any scones is always there.   

The Moment Of Terror varies in severity and today's rating was HIGH. It was my 70th mission, I had travelled 160 miles, it was raining, I was soaked, and I got lost. I was expecting A la Ronde to serve octagonal scones but by the time I got there I didn't care if the scones were in the shape of Jeremy Clarkson as long as they had some. 

The A la Ronde scone
But A la Ronde DID have scones. Behold this magnificent specimen:

It was the tastiest scone I have had in a long time. This being Devon, the cream was turbo-charged - it was very thick and less sweet, which I loved, but it did present a challenge to the scone. However, I ate all of it and if I did end up walking around with jam smeared all over my face, nobody said anything.

So that's 70 National Trust scone adventures done - only 150 odd to go. 

A la Ronde: 5 out of 5
Scones: 5 out of 5
Genius round house idea: 5 out of 5

Upton House and Gardens

I keep getting Upton House mixed up with Upton Park. They are not the same thing at all. Upton House is a stately home near Banbury. Upton Park is a football stadium in East London. 

I will tell you now that I LOVED Upton House. There are many reasons for this. It has an impressive art collection, complete with fascinating stories about where those artworks came from and where they were hidden during the war (in a quarry in Wales). 

The house itself also has a very interesting history; in 1927 it was bought by Walter Samuel, Lord Bearsted. He had a lot to contend with during his years at Upton - apparently Hitler had two lists of people that were to be rounded up immediately after an invasion of the UK and Lord Bearsted was on both of them, as the chairman of an international business - his father had founded the Shell oil company - and as a prominent member of the Jewish community. 

However, I wouldn't have known any of this if we hadn't joined a tour. I'm a MASSIVE fan of audio tours but I normally avoid being led about by a human - mainly because I don't want to wait an hour and a half for the next one, or go careering around the place trying to catch up with the one "that just left two minutes ago".

After today, however, I will try harder to join a tour if one is available. It was full of fascinating facts and it really helped to bring the place to life.

The art tour basically showed us round the gallery area of the house. There are plenty of impressive works. This one, painted by El Greco in 1579, was one of my favourites. Poor old 'El' had his fee cut apparently, because he painted the heads of the crowd higher than that of Christ, which didn't go down very well in 16th century Spain: 

Once the art tour was over, we wandered around the rest of the house. It was built in the 17th century and had many owners, before the Bearsteds bought it as a weekend country bolt-hole. 

I think it's the only National Trust property I've seen with a swimming pool in the back garden. It didn't look all that inviting today, in the drizzle:

The Bearsteds have remained connected to Upton. The daughter of the 3rd Viscount, Felicity Waley-Cohen, is the mother of the jockey Sam Waley-Cohen and they still own a nearby stud farm called Upton Viva. So there is a sporting connection after all.

The Upton House scone
Let's be honest though - there was only really one work of art I was looking for today and that was a show-stopping SCONE. It hasn't been a good year for me and my scone odyssey so far. In 2013 and 2014, I managed a total of 20 top-scoring National Trust scones, giving me an average of 1.18 top class scones per month. This year, the Scone d'Or has been gathering dust and it's the 8th of March already. 

The tea room at Upton House was lovely - it's big and welcoming and without doubt one of the nicest I've seen. It was early, though, and I had serious concerns about that. Going into a tea room at 11.30am and asking for a scone - you might as well say "I know you're more concerned with preparing lunches at the moment, so please just give me one of last Thursday's scones and I'll get out of your way". I know this probably doesn't happen, but I fear it all the same. 

But there was no reason for concern because the Upton scone was A TRIUMPH. It was warm, fresh, and literally melt-in-the-mouth, which is really all I ever ask of a scone. Even the scone sidekick agreed and he's normally saying things like "I'd give it a two".

I did learn one other thing today, and I hope the National Trust forgives me for this. I sometimes think that I've gone a bit native with the NT - I so rarely find anything to complain about, and I've even started feeling more positively inclined to gardens, which was UNHEARD of two years ago. BUT today I came to the firm conclusion that even if I live to be 104, I will never, ever be interested in porcelain. But if porcelain IS your thing, then there's plenty of it at Upton. 

Upton House: 4.5 out of 5
Scone: 5 out of 5! Get IN!
Artwork tour: 5 out of 5
Porcelain: 0 out of 5 for me, 5 out of 5 if porcelain is your bag

Wightwick Manor

I'm thinking of writing a book called How To Persuade Your Other Half To Visit National Trust Properties. There is an art to it and I believe I have perfected it. Take the conversation I had with the Scone Sidekick about Wightwick Manor: 

Me: I really want to go to Wightwick Manor

Him: Where is it? 
Me: Wolverhampton

Him: <looks aghast> That's MILES away. What's there? 

Me: It's a house built and furnished in the Arts & Crafts style. It has William Morris wallpaper, Pre-Raphaelite art and De Morgan pottery scattered throughout.

Him: <continues to watch The One Show> 

Me: It's the one on the front of the Houses of the National Trust book <holds book up>

Him: Oh alright then

The moral of the story is that EVERY National Trust property has SOMETHING going for it. And Wightwick Manor is very, very photogenic. 

In fact, the book doesn't do Wightwick Manor justice - it is much bigger and much more impressive in real life. Behold my first ever attempt at a panoramic shot on my iPhone:

In 1887, a Wolverhampton paint manufacturer called Theodore Mander bought the Wightwick estate. There had been a manor house at Wightwick for centuries but he decided to build a new house in the 'Old English' style - he had attended a lecture by Oscar Wilde on 'The House Beautiful' and set out to design a home that prioritised the principles of hand craftmanship, both inside and out. In 1893, Mander extended the house to accommodate his growing family. 

Theodore died young - he was only 47. He had married a woman called Flora St Clair Paint (I kid you not) and they had four children. The eldest was Geoffrey and when Flora also died aged 47, he inherited Wightwick.

In 1937, Geoffrey Mander took the extraordinary step of handing Wightwick Manor AND ALL ITS CONTENTS to the National Trust. Initially, it sounds as if the Trust wasn't too keen - the house was less than 50 years old and Victorian architecture and art had fallen out of fashion.

But luckily they did they take it on. Theodore and Flora had created a home filled with features and furnishings from some of the leading lights of the Arts & Crafts movement - William Morris fabrics and wallpaper and De Morgan tiles - and Geoffrey and his wives continued to add to the collection. Today you can find the original Morris furnishings complimented by Rossetti and Burne-Jones artworks. It's amazing. 

In fact, I would go as far as to say that Wightwick has the single most beautiful room in all of the National Trust. It's the Great Parlour and it was designed to look like a Great Hall but with beautiful furnishings. There's even a Minstrels Gallery at the back, but it's actually a useful landing rather than an ornamental feature. This picture doesn't do it justice at all - you need to go and see it.

The Wightwick Scone
But onto the scones. I was very relieved to see a pile of scones at Wightwick, I can tell you - I've had two hits and two misses so far this year and it has shaken my confidence somewhat. 

It was another 'sconus tardisus' this week - like last week's scone at the Wimpole Estate, this week we had another nice-looking scone that turned out to be enormous. It was full of currants and very tasty. 

I've just realised that I don't really have the time to write a book about How To Persuade Your Other Half To Visit National Trust Properties, as I've still got around 150 properties to complete as part of my scone odyssey. Maybe I'll run it as a summer school instead. We'll all meet somewhere lovely for a week in August and eat scones and drink tea. Who's in?

Wightwick Manor: 5 out of 5
Scone: 4.5 out of 5
Great Parlour: 5 out of 5

Other visits I have made in the West Midlands: Dudmaston, Moseley Old Hall, Kinver Edge 

Wimpole Estate

I had a disastrous visit to the Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire last year. It wasn't the scones that were at fault, or the cute little piglets, or even the massive, massive sows that were almost the size of my car and quite possibly the scariest thing I have ever seen (and I'm not even joking).

It was disastrous because we got there too late and there was too much to do. We strolled round the farm, then noticed the time and crammed scones into our mouths before practically running to the house. My scone companion sister said the now legendary words "the house can't be that big, we'll be fine" just as we turned the corner to see this: 

I think you will agree that it is actually quite a big house. By 4pm it was also actually quite a shut house. And although I love and adore scones to a point that is veering on the unhealthy, even I will admit that a blog post saying "I ate some scones" would be a bit dull. 

And so today we went back to Wimpole. I was going to make everyone get up at 5am to make sure we got there in time but I thought this might be too extreme, even for me.

So, having now seen it all, here are my top 5 features of Wimpole:

1. The farm!
If you made a list of National Trust properties most suited to children, Wimpole would be in the top five I reckon, thanks to the very wonderful farm. There's a piggery, some cows, some Shetland ponies, and even a Shire horse to keep everyone entertained and slightly on edge:

Two friendly-ish pigs

Some cows - after years of watching Adam on Countryfile I should know the breed,
but I don't. I have failed you, Adam.

Two scarily huge sows trying to batter each other through a metal fence

2. Wimpole Hall!
Wimpole Hall is a very large and interesting house, with a chapel, a very impressive library, and an indoor pool built in 1792. I was fascinated by the pool - I've never seen one like it before, but apparently they were quite common at the time, although they were usually located away from the house.  

The Wimpole Hall we see today has had many owners. Sir Thomas Chicheley began work on it in 1640, but was forced to sell in 1686 to Sir John Cutler. It passed by marriage to the Earls of Radnor, who sold it in 1710 to the Duke of Newcastle. It then passed by marriage again to the Harleys, before one of them fell on hard times and sold it to the Earl of Hardwicke in 1740. The 5th Earl of Hardwicke had to sell Wimpole to cover his debts (bit of a pattern emerging here). It was bought by the 2nd Lord Robartes in 1894 who actually lived at another property now owned by the Trust; Lanhydrock in Cornwall. 

Wimpole was left to slowly deteriorate, until it was let to a Captain George Bambridge and his wife, Elsie, in 1936. She had money - she was the only surviving child of Rudyard Kipling, which links her to another NT property, Bateman's, and so they bought Wimpole. George died in 1943, leaving Elsie to spend 30 years doing it up on her own - it tells you everything that the War Office didn't requisition Wimpole, as it had no electricity or running water.

Elsie sounds like a character. Apparently she hated people coming near the house - there's a story in the guidebook about how she once saw a couple having a picnic in the grounds, so she made a note of their number plate and then went round and had lunch in their garden the following week. It's probably not true, but the fact that it might be says a lot about her. 

3. Gina the Wimpole cat
I do love a National Trust cat. Gina lives in the Wimpole shop where she has her own shelf. I'm not sure what type of merchandise has been ousted to make way for her, nor do I know how she actually gets onto her shelf (the sign says that she is 14) but she seemed happy enough, if a bit camera-shy. Maybe the spirit of Elsie Bambridge lives on in Gina.

4. The Wimpole scone
The restaurant at Wimpole is one of those really well organised efforts - and it has to be, because it's very popular. I had my usual moment of panic when I couldn't see any scones, but Wimpole didn't let me down; the sultana scone was lovely. It definitely belongs in the species of Sconus Tardisus - it didn't look that big but it certainly didn't leave me hungry.

5. Scone of the Month
My love for any National Trust property that does a Scone of the Month knows no bounds. I think it's such a great idea. Wimpole's Scone of the Month for February was a white chocolate and cherry affair and it was absolutely delicious - it was cleverly put together so that you could really taste the chocolate and the cherry but it wasn't in any way sickly. I loved it.

So let's recap. Big house - check. A piggery - check. Tasty scone - check. Scone of the Month - check. Cat doing its own thing - check. You really can't fault Wimpole - if you haven't been, go immediately.

Wimpole: 5 out of 5
Scone: 4.5 out of 5
Gina the cat on a shelf: 5 out of 5

Ashridge Estate

I was drawn to the Ashridge Estate because they sell ice-cream for dogs. I don't have a dog but the fact that someone has dreamt up ice-cream for dogs and the National Trust has decided to sell it is very reassuring in this turbulent world.

Anyway, I doubt that many dogs were queuing up for ice-cream today as it's February. I didn't care - for the first time in my career as a National Trust member I had remembered to bring my wellies. This meant that for the first time in my career as a National Trust member I wasn't THAT woman - the one clinging to a tree and shrieking "it's all muddy Pete!" while wearing wholly inappropriate shoes. Yes, you've probably seen me. 

Anyway. Here's a picture of Ashridge - it's the only one I took, unfortunately:

And here are some facts about Ashridge for you:

• There have been settlements at Ashridge since prehistoric times
• A monastery was founded at Ashridge around 1283, although it was dissolved in 1539
• Elizabeth I spent quite a bit of time at Ashridge as a girl - she was arrested there in 1552 on the orders of her sister, Queen Mary
• The estate fell into the hands of the Egertons in 1604
• Francis Egerton (the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater) was known as the "Canal Duke" as he built the first true canal in England
• The Bridgewater Monument was built to celebrate his achievements - it's still there and you can go up it (but not until April)
• Ashridge House was built in the early 1800s in the Gothic style - it's now a business school and not owned by the National Trust
• The Brownlows took over ownership in the 1850s until the 1920s
• Ashridge is massive - the woods stretch over 2,965 acres

Ashridge has also been used as a location for many films - Maleficent and Into The Woods to name just two.

The Ashridge scone
Talking of films: have you ever seen the film Teen Wolf? It's about a boy (Michael J Fox) who turns into a wolf - that's all you need to know. Anyway, there's a scene in the film, unless I have made this up, where he turns up at school as a wolf and the camera shows you the faces of the other students, all spilling their hot dogs and dropping their jaws in slow motion disbelief as he passes.

Well, today that EXACT thing happened to me at Ashridge as I carried this scone to my seat. A woman did actually say the words "Oh my God" as I passed:

And you can see why: it's ginormous and it looks more like a burger. 

There is a good reason why the scones are so unusual: the tearoom at Ashridge is outside. It's large - there's plenty of seating and some of it is under cover - but the food is ordered at a window. I've mentioned before that a cream tea really isn't the easiest food to do as a takeaway, so I take my hat off to Ashridge for finding a way to do it. Amazing work.

I also found out afterwards that the food at Ashridge is actually an "NT approved concession", which I think means that someone else is making the scones. But whoever it is: jolly well done to you. If I ever get stuck on a desert island, I'd want you with me.

Ashridge for people: 4 out of 5
Ashridge if you're a dog: 8,000,000 out of 5
Scone: 3.5 out of 5