Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
And the first stop is Go Ape on the outskirts of Blackburn. Welcome and practice..... Then the real stuff, with no turning back....... Occasional help, well, encouragement....... A terrific experience, even for watchers, but as a romanian mother pointed out to us for her to pay for three children and a husband which was £100, that's a lot of money....... In the evening we had a quick trip out to a favourite of ours - The Inn at Whitewell. Lovely. The drink on the terrace and the pics. On another day we went to Saltaire........ The vegan burger was apparently very good.... And a new exhibition by Hockney - A Year in Normandy - was excellent......the painting loops all the way round so is gi-normous. The video on the history of the mill and Saltaire was excellent and nice to see this photo of what it was like at places of mass production when the hooter went. We finished up on the top floor where in a very characterful setting an exhibition of the photos by Ian Beesley of mill and other works closures, and of the people who worked there and their environment...... Outside we crossed the canal and river to a playpark..... which was ok when you could get in! An ice cream and a walk around the park where a cricket match was going on was a satisfactory end to our visit. Aiisha and Katherine had come down to celebrate my Birthday which we did in fine fashion at the Dakota hotel where the food and the service were excellent. But first we went to the Golden Mummies exhibition at Manchester Museum....... Our last trip out was to Blackburn Ice Rink, and we all loved it.....
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One visit a year to Harewood allowed to Historic Houses members, so this was it. Would harewood be worth a second visit? The interiors are grand but at the same time very liveable. Who wouldn't want to work or read in a room like this? As everywhere in the house the ceilings are absolutely magnificent, and each room has a 'oneness'. And there is a very good reason for that.....the whole house is a three-way partnership between architect John Carr......... architect and interior designer Robert Adam........ and cabinet maker and furnisher Thomas Chippendale. We must also mention Eighteenth Century landscape gardener Capability Brown. Every detail is thought of and given attention...... Next door is Princess Mary's dressing room with this wonderful alcove. When Princess Mary and her husband, the 6th Earl, came to live at Harewood in 1929, this room was part of a suite of rooms specially redesigned for her in the ‘Robert Adam revival’ style. The fireplace recess with its two cupboards contains some of Princess Mary’s collection of amber, rose quartz and jade. The display of World War I Christmas boxes that Princess Mary sent to every soldier is touching. Let us rely on the very good online guide to the rooms.....'This was Edwin Lascelles’ bedroom with ceiling and frieze were designed by Robert Adam. The main feature of this room is the Chinese wallpaper. It was hung by Chippendale’s men in the Chintz Bedroom (on the 1st floor and not open to the public) in 1769. But later generations did not share the 18th century love for all things Chinese, so sometime in the first part of the 19th century, it was cut from the walls, rolled up in linen and put away in an outbuilding, where it lay for nearly 200 years. That it survived for so long is remarkable; that it survived in near perfect condition is astonishing.' In most of the rooms there was a running display of an exhibition devoted to Reynolds who painted many portraits of the Lascelles family Very interesting but hindering appreciation of the rooms themselves which is what we wanted to see. It was also very surprising to find out about his experimental techniques as a result of which his canvases are now frequently cracked or faded and many have dark, blistered surfaces where the composition has become obscured. Some of the family's more modern acquisitions don't have anywhere near the power or prence of the Masters of previous times. What a view from your bedroom window...... The 'Spanish Library' is full of character. 'This room has been many things in the life of Harewood House. Originally the State Dressing Room, en-suite with the State Bedroom next door, Charles Barry transformed it into a Victorian library. Subsequently, the room was used as a breakfast room and was briefly a study for the 6th Earl. It has been room used for family gatherings (the Main Library) on one side and Princess Mary’s sitting room (now the State Bedroom) on the other. Between the tall bookcases and the Robert Adam ceiling is a 17th century wall-covering of Spanish leather. Added by the 6th Earl, the room then became known as the Spanish Library. Interestingly, recent research has shown that the leather is actually from the Netherlands! One of Barry’s main additions to this room are the two “secret” doors disguised as bookshelves: the one between this room and the State Bedroom and one in the far corner to the left of the fireplace. There are more than 11,000 books in the three libraries at Harewood dating from the 16th century to the late 20th. Their cataloging and conservation is a massive and ongoing project. 'Originally this room, the Cinnamon Drawing Room, was hung with white damask and bordered with gold. Known as the White Drawing Room, it featured no fewer than five looking glasses as well as two full length family portraits. The white silk was later replaced by green, which gradually faded until the decision to concentrate family portraits in this room prompted the present cinnamon background. The ram’s head pier glasses were originally in the Dining Room before it was redesigned and enlarged by Barry to a scale which would no longer accommodate them. In 1989, they were reunited with the pier tables which properly belong underneath them. They now stand together for the first time for nearly 150 years in the Cinnamon Drawing Room at Harewood. Victorian taste had resulted in many of the elaborate ornaments being removed which proliferate above the frames. All this filigree was found in a storeroom on the Harewood Estate, neatly packed away and labelled. The mirrors were painstakingly rebuilt over two years, the first of several pairs to undergo this treatment before being restored to places of honour in the House. The paintings in the cove and centre of Adam’s ceiling are not part of his original design, but were added in 1852 by Alfred Stevens, newly returned from Italy. “This room extends over the whole west end of the house, and is 76 feet 10 inches by 24 feet 3 inches, 21 feet 3 inches high; it is truly elegant, and presents such a show of magnificence and art as eye hath seldom seen and words cannot describe” So some 50 years after the Gallery was built wrote John Jewell in the earliest guide book to Harewood. It was one of Adam’s most magnificent achievements, but not immune on that account to alterations under Barry’s aegis. Columns supporting the central arches of the three triple windows, at either end and in the middle, were replaced by brackets (a favourite device of Barry’s, it would appear); and the chimneypiece, for which Adam’s design is dated 1776, was removed to the Dining Room and two Victorian replacements installed. We restored the chimney-piece to its original position in 1990 and placed the later pair (which, however handsome, were unquestionably intruders on Adam’s scheme) in store, and the main windows are again graced by the pillars and pilasters which, says Jewell’s guide book, were “painted by Mr. Hutchinson, of London, in imitation of the verd antique marble and admirably transcribed from a table in the same room”. John Jewell describes the ceiling as of the palmyran taste; Adam drew it in 1769 and Rose executed it within a couple of years, its “oblongs, crosses, ovals and octagons, adorned with urns, bows, masks, festoons, rosettes, acanthus, daisy and honeysuckle” (the description is Richard Buckle’s). The exploits amorous, war-like or simply ceremonial, of Greek gods and goddesses are depicted on the ceiling by Biagio Rebecca, and four decorative oval paintings by Angelica Kaufmann top the mirrors between the windows. These, with their elegantly flanking cherubs, stand to the credit of Thomas Chippendale, as do the rectilinear chairs and sofas, and the elegant torchères (candelabra stands to which were added in the 1930s inverted shades for casting light onto the ceiling). To crown Chippendale’s achievement here – a celebrated feature of the room – are the pelmets, made of wood and beautifully carved to imitate a heavy material – the only ‘curtains’ the room was intended to have. The marble-topped console tables with their rams’ heads and lions’ feet on which the mirrors rest are later and by the younger Chippendale. The pelmets carved from wood by Chippendale to look like drapes are truly astonishing...... Above the fireplace an El Greco.......An Allegory. Here a painting back after restoration and waiting for a regulation period to settle as it were before re-hanging. Barry’s changes to the State Dining Room in the 1840’s are the most radical anywhere on the State Floor. He raised the ceiling and changed the shape of the room – Robert Adam’s original plans are in the Sir John Soane Museum in London. Nothing of this scheme remains, with the rather significant exception of the Chippendale furniture: a fine set of dining room chairs and two superb side-tables, urn-topped pedestals and a wine cooler. These are among Chippendale’s finest pieces and very much made to be used: the wine coolers and urns are lined with lead and the pedestals conceal racks to keep plates warm. The chimneypiece Adam designed for this room disappeared without trace in Barry’s alterations and was replaced by the one that was originally in the Gallery. When that room was restored to Adam’s configuration in 1990 and the two Victorian fireplaces removed, the one that Barry had moved to the Dining Room was moved back to its central position in the Gallery, and one of the right period bought to replace it. This the one you see in the Dining Room now, with the head of Bacchus, the god of food and wine, in pride of place. The Music Room is considered to be the most complete example of Adam’s interiors at Harewood. The circular design creates a sense of movement and melody which is enhanced by Joshua Reynold’s Mrs Hale as Euphrosyne lightly dancing into the room. The clock on the left, with Sèvres porcelain panels is thought to have a royal provenance and has musical decorations to fit the theme of this room. The looking glasses and pier tables between the windows are by Chippendale. Princess Mary and the 6th Earl purchased the Steinway grand piano in this room which is one of two in the house. Princess Mary was an accomplished pianist and the 7th Earl wrote: ‘There was a pianola roll of an arrangement of the ‘Prize Song’ from Mastersingers which I discovered had a particular significance in my parents’ courtship – precisely what I never knew.’ We rushed through the servants' quarters downstairs as they generally tell the same stories.... Stepping out onto the terrace from the house is refreshing to say the least. We did not have time to explore the grounds, as we did not fancy the food in the cafe/restaurant which itself was untidy and dirty. We neede to seek out somewhere else for refreshment.
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Keith & Frances SmithArchives
August 2023
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