A Castle That's Not a Castle

On one of our walks with Kevin and Sue, we passed a local landmark, a building known as Highcliffe Castle.  In fact, it is not a castle but a grand manor house, and it does not date from the Middle Ages, but rather from the 1830s.

As we approached the house with its Gothic revival architecture it looked a bit like a cathedral.

 What looked at first like the facade of a church was a grand carriage entrance.

And instead of a cross, there was a statue of a stag with a banner on top.

Originally, a mansion had been built on these grounds by the 3rd Earl of Bute in the 1770s.  It was built on the cliff overlooking the English Channel.  However, the house stood for only 38 years before erosion of the cliff destabilized it.  The Earl's grandson, Lord Stuart de Rothesay built a new house farther in from the cliff's edge.  He imported masonry, stained glass and oak timbers from Normandy and exquisite French furniture that were spoils of the Napoleonic Wars.  The "castle" was completed in 1836.

After Lord Stuart's death the house was passed on to his widow and then his daughter.  A distant cousin later inherited it.  The mansion hosted many notable visitors, including Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany in 1907.  The "castle" was rented out a number of times.  The most famous tenant was U.S.-born entrepreneur Harry Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge's department store in London.  Although he was only renting the house, he installed modern bathroom and kitchen facilities as well as central heating.  The building was eventually sold, and served as a children's home and as a Catholic seminary.

In 1967 there was a devastating fire, and the house deteriorated into a ruin.  By 1998. the house was restored, and today it is used as a venue for weddings and other events.

The is an inscription in Latin from the Roman poet Lucretius along the exterior of the building.  It says, "Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation."

We Finally Meet

Not long after I started my blog in 2013, I started reading a blog called "The Mexile".  It is written by an Englishman by the name of Gary Denness.  Gary began his blog in 2003 when he took his first trip to Mexico.  Subsequently he lived in Mexico City for several years where he taught English.  During that time he fell in love with a Mexican lady, and they married.  Before I had started reading his blog, he returned to England.  He and his wife now live in Bournemouth.

Although we had never met face to face, over the years we got to know each other in a way  through reading and commenting on each others blogs. He and his wife have traveled extensively.  Although there are a few countries that I have visited, such as Switzerland and Norway, that they have not seen, the list of nations that he has visited far surpasses mine.  When they traveled back to Mexico a while ago, we hoped that we would be able to get together and finally meet.  However, it didn't happen.  When he learned that I was traveling to England, and that my cousin lives just down the road from Bournemouth, we decided that this time we had to meet!

That meeting occurred last Wednesday, and ironically, he suggested that we meet at The Cat and the Fiddle, the historic pub where we had dined the night before.  We had really liked the place so we had no objections at all.  He and his wife drove to my cousin's house and picked us up.  We had drinks and snacks at the pub, and what was supposed to be a short get together stretched into several hours.  We literally closed the pub.  Gary is just as interesting a chap as I had  imagined from his blog, and his wife is equally charming.  We talked and talked, and they were sorry that we were not staying longer in England so that we could get together again. It was truly a pleasure to meet them.

I guess that we now have two reasons to return to that corner of England... to visit my cousin and his family, and to see Gary and his wife again.

Not the best picture, but, as you can see, Gary is a very tall fellow who barely fit under the low ceiling of the old pub.

You can visit Gary's "The Mexile" by clicking on the link in my blog list.

 

         

A Medieval Church

On Wednesday Kevin and Sue took us to one of the most historic buildings in the area.  In the town of Christchurch there is the church of a medieval priory (or monastery) that dates back to the 12th century.  The large church rivals some English cathedrals in size.

By 1150 a basic Norman-style church had been completed, but over the centuries additions and renovations resulted in a mixture of styles.  We were unable to visit the entire church because services were being held in the Lady Chapel at the far end of the structure.  Nevertheless, it was a very impressive building.

One of the oldest parts of the church is this doorway with a Norman arch.  It is called the Prior's Entrance because this was the personal door to the church for the head of the monastery.  It probably dates from 1140.

This marble baptismal font from the early Norman period probably dates from 1200.

The wooden choir stalls are known as "misericords" from the Latin word for compassion.  They are not really seats, but they provided the monks, who had to stand through the services, a little bit of support.

They are superb examples of medieval woodcarving.

  Stained glass windows in the church

Another Member of the Family

I would be remiss not to mention another member of my cousin's family... their black Labrador Lily.

 

We fell in love with Lily.  She is a very sweet, friendly dog who greeted us with a wagging tail and kisses.

The Cat and the Fiddle

On Tuesday evening, Kevin and Sue took us out for dinner at a nearby pub not far from their home.  The place is called "The Cat and the Fiddle".  It claims to be more than 400 years old and one of the oldest pubs in England.  It stands on the site of a hospice run by monks in the 11th century.  In the 19th century it was a favorite gathering place for smugglers and highwaymen.

A modern addition was built onto it, but the original building still has a thatched roof.

   

I ordered a very traditional, British dish... their home-baked meat pie.  The pie of the day was chicken and leek.  It was served with gravy and mashed potatoes with spring onions, roasted carrots and greens.

It was a lovely evening with delicious food and good company in a historic setting.

By the Sea

On our first full day with my cousin Kevin and his wife Sue, we went to a nearby seaside village called Barton-by-Sea.  It is located on a cliff more than 100 feet above the English Channel.  There are several paths that descend to the beach.

Along the shore there are little beach cabins.  These structures, not much bigger than a walk-in closet can cost between 30,000 and 150,000 British pounds (between 40,000 and 200,000 U.S. dollars!).

The cliffs are composed of very crumbly material and are prone to erosion.  In some places the cliffs are eroding at the rate of three feet per year.  In order to try to slow the rate of erosion, vegetation has been planted on the cliffs.

This is as far as we were allowed to go due to unstable cliffs.

You can see evidence of where houses built on the edge of the cliff, have fallen to the sea due to erosion.

From the beach you can see just off shore the Isle of Wight, an island in the English Channel.  The island became a popular seaside resort when Queen Victoria made it her winter residence.  (The island supposedly has the mildest winters in the England)  At the right, you can see rock formations known as the Needles.

Visiting My Cousin

On Monday we packed up again to continue on our journey.  We went back to Heathrow Terminal 5, and there at the bus station we caught a National Express bus to Bournemouth which is located on the coast of the English Channel.  The ride was a comfortable two hour trip.  When we reached the Bournemouth bus depot, my cousin Kevin was there to meet us.  We drove to his home in a nearby town.   

Before anything else, the topic of conversation was England's victory over Mexico in the World Cup match that was held in the wee hours of Monday morning, UK time.  None of us had stayed up that late to watch the game, but it was big, big news in England.  Even though I was rooting for Mexico, in a way I was relieved by their loss.  I had packed many Mexico t-shirts including team jerseys in my luggage before I was aware that the two nations were going to be paired.  I was a bit afraid of how people would react if Mexico won and I walked around wearing Mexico shirts. 

After we got settled, we had dinner outside on their terrace.  Kevin barbequed meat on the grill and his wife Sue had prepared a number of salads and side dishes.  It was a lovely meal.  Sue and Kevin's younger son, Scott, joined us.

After dinner, I brought out the gifts that I had bought them.  I knew that Kevin collected lead toy soldiers, and I had found a shop in Mexico City that sold them.  I brought him two... one a soldier on horseback from the Mexican Revolution and the other a cadet from the "Colegio Militar" (the military academy that used to be located in Chapultepec Castle) holding a Mexican flag.

Kevin then gave us a gift.  In his retirement he has taken painting classes, and he has become quite good at his artwork.  He gave me two paintings that he did of the nearby beaches along the English Channel.

They will be hung on the wall in the apartment when we return to Mexico City!