Today was about a 2.5 hour trip to Stowe House and Gardens. The pictures on the internet made it seem very enticing and grand. We got there about noon and the house itself wasn’t open until 3pm for a tour. That meant we had to walk around the grounds for about three hours. That ended up not being enough time. We stopped for lunch at the café, where we ate the lunch we brought. Chris did actually buy some spicy parsnip soup which I bravely tried, and it was pretty good!
We then started to walk the vast grounds. There were many various buildings along the grounds as you walked. Not any you could get into. They all seemed a bit Romanesque in my opinion. There were also various statues. One of the two most interesting buildings along our walk that we were able to see was a Gothic church, which is
the first picture on the right. It looks as though someone may live in it, it would’ve been nice to be able to go in and see it.The other was more interesting because of the plaque outside describing what the building used to be “The Temple of Friendship.” It was not accessible as it’s more of a ruin now. It had caught fire at some point and never fixed up. What was funny was that it used to have statues of “friends” of the owner at the time, and if someone fell out of favor, their statue was taken down. As if to say, “you’re not my friend anymore.”
The house itself was a bit of a disappointment. It’s now a boarding school so there were many, many, many students on the grounds playing various sports. There were lacrosse games, rugby games, and I think I saw field hockey. The house was inherited by Viscount Cobham who was a Whig politician, from his father. It was originally built in the 1600’s I believe. It was passed down the family line and when Richard Grenville inherited it, he then became known as Earl Tmeple and was described as the wealthiest commoner in England. The problem was that he spent most of his fortune on rebuilding the house. Then more relatives after him spent even more money on adding to the house. By 1848 the contents of the house were sold to reduce some of the debts and the house wasn’t occupied for over a decade. By 1922 it was then turned into a school which now has 580 pupils ages 13-18.
The tour guide was a previous pupil and I’m not sure but may have even been a teacher at the school (if not this school, some other school). It was hard to hear him as the “school takes precedence,” so the kids were finishing up their sports activities for the day and walking all around making noise. Plus the tour guide was very slow. It took about an hour and a half to look at seven rooms.
What was really sad was that he had a sketch book showing us what the rooms used to look like. Most of them are very altered due to it now being a school. The one room that sounded like it was really grand is now a cafeteria. He described how it used to have a huge bed and all these other grand things. The picture was amazing and to see the extreme difference now was disheartening.
The only room that was still really amazing was more of an entry way called the Marble Saloon. The only marble in it was the floor. There were columns made to look the marble but are really plaster and some kind of work done to make it look as though they’re made of marble. The ceiling dome and frieze around it was really amazing. The ceiling has all these stone flowers and no one is the same. Although to take a quick glance at it you wouldn’t know. Then the frieze was again Roman like of all these soldiers in “high relief” whatever that means. I put a video at the bottom so you could see this marvelous room.
It was at least nice that we could take pictures in the house. It was also nice that Makenna was in a pretty good mood. Listening wasn’t always something she wanted to do but she did fairly well. I think it was mostly because she could run around outside and go up steps to the different structures. She was upset when we were in the house and she couldn’t go up the steps – I think those led to dorm rooms or classrooms – I’m not sure. She was glad to get back outside again after the tour. I’ll give you some more Makenna-isms that happened today in tomorrow’s blog.
The house itself was a bit of a disappointment. It’s now a boarding school so there were many, many, many students on the grounds playing various sports. There were lacrosse games, rugby games, and I think I saw field hockey. The house was inherited by Viscount Cobham who was a Whig politician, from his father. It was originally built in the 1600’s I believe. It was passed down the family line and when Richard Grenville inherited it, he then became known as Earl Tmeple and was described as the wealthiest commoner in England. The problem was that he spent most of his fortune on rebuilding the house. Then more relatives after him spent even more money on adding to the house. By 1848 the contents of the house were sold to reduce some of the debts and the house wasn’t occupied for over a decade. By 1922 it was then turned into a school which now has 580 pupils ages 13-18.
The tour guide was a previous pupil and I’m not sure but may have even been a teacher at the school (if not this school, some other school). It was hard to hear him as the “school takes precedence,” so the kids were finishing up their sports activities for the day and walking all around making noise. Plus the tour guide was very slow. It took about an hour and a half to look at seven rooms.
What was really sad was that he had a sketch book showing us what the rooms used to look like. Most of them are very altered due to it now being a school. The one room that sounded like it was really grand is now a cafeteria. He described how it used to have a huge bed and all these other grand things. The picture was amazing and to see the extreme difference now was disheartening.
The only room that was still really amazing was more of an entry way called the Marble Saloon. The only marble in it was the floor. There were columns made to look the marble but are really plaster and some kind of work done to make it look as though they’re made of marble. The ceiling dome and frieze around it was really amazing. The ceiling has all these stone flowers and no one is the same. Although to take a quick glance at it you wouldn’t know. Then the frieze was again Roman like of all these soldiers in “high relief” whatever that means. I put a video at the bottom so you could see this marvelous room.
It was at least nice that we could take pictures in the house. It was also nice that Makenna was in a pretty good mood. Listening wasn’t always something she wanted to do but she did fairly well. I think it was mostly because she could run around outside and go up steps to the different structures. She was upset when we were in the house and she couldn’t go up the steps – I think those led to dorm rooms or classrooms – I’m not sure. She was glad to get back outside again after the tour. I’ll give you some more Makenna-isms that happened today in tomorrow’s blog.
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