Again on JACD

I'm on Just a Catholic Dad again! This time I provide an audio report on a recent beer festival I went to. We had joked earlier that I should be a beer correspondent for the show, now it is actually happening! He is glad to take submissions from others (even about cider and perry!), so don't feel shy if you have a microphone and a favorite brew.

My report is about 41 minutes into the show (available here), but you should listen to the whole thing because it is great!

Hanbury Hall and Gardens Part I: The Hall

Hanbury Hall and Gardens was built in the late 17th century by Thomas Vernon. He was a successful lawyer and used his money to get a little house in the country. Three different designs were submitted to him. William Rudhall's design is the closest to what we see now, which is a classic example of the William and Mary style. The date 1701 is over the front doorway but that was added in the 19th century. No one is sure why the date is there.

The Hall

Another unexplained feature that I noticed was some fake windows on the outside of the building on the east face. At one point, there was a tax on windows, so maybe this is an example of the classic way to dodge the tax.

The middle windows are fake; I guess I should have checked from inside!

Going inside, the first room on the left, the Sitting Room, was originally two rooms. It was "My Lady's Parlour" and the withdrawing room. The parlour part would be used to entertain guests. The smaller withdrawing room would be for entertaining more intimate acquaintances. It also provided a discreet route for the lady of the house to leave off entertaining since a door led out to the garden. The rooms were turned into one around 1800 by Emma Vernon and Henry Cecil, presumably to have more space for entertaining, though there is no written evidence explaining the change. Another notable fact about the room is the 1721 inventory which listed 102 paintings in the room! The docent in this room gave us a quick and thorough history of the ups and downs of the Vernon family's fortunes. A thrifty Vernon was often followed by a spendthrift one who wiped out the family savings. Also, many romantic intrigues and kerfuffles pepper their history.

Sitting Room with docent

The Main Hall is dark and welcoming. The fireplace is a later addition. The bust over it is Thomas Vernon in his lawyerly wig and robes. Underneath is a small sign "VER_NON SEMPER VIRET," which means "Vernon is always green," as in very prosperous. The underscore allows another interpretation: "Spring is not always green." This refers to the varying fortunes of the Vernon family. Paintings of various family members surround the fireplace.

Main Fireplace

Behind the main hall is the Smoking Room, where the men of the house had offices for conducting business. They could also keep an eye on the back courtyard where the servants worked. It was used to store the guns for hunting.

Desk for doing business

A small hallway connects the Smoking Room to the Dining Room. In it are two death notice signs from bygone eras. The signs were hung outside wealthy houses and showed the combined family crests of husband and wife, though if the deceased was single there was a single crescent. For a couple, if the left side of the sign was black, the husband died. If the right side, then the wife.

Two crests, one widow ("Rest in Heaven" is the translation)

A dead bachelor (same inscription)

The Dining Room is quite ornate and has an extensive collection of paintings of the Vernon family. Like the Sitting Room, it was originally two rooms, the lobby and a withdrawing room. The lobby was the everyday entrance to the house. The withdrawing room was an antechamber to one of the bed chambers. Again, it was a place to invite closer friends. The chimney piece is from the 1760s.

Dining Room

Over the fireplace

Connecting the Dining Room to the Main Hall is the Drawing Room, where the ladies would withdraw after dinner to let the men enjoy their port and cigars. It is now furnished as a sitting room with a rather delicate carpet.

Drawing Room

See, I was right!

The Great Staircase is perhaps the greatest thing to see at Hanbury Hall. Thomas Vernon commissioned Sir James Thornhill to paint the staircase. Thornhill had done several other large scale projects, though his most famous work was to come in 1716 when he painted the cupola of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. He is a quality artist. The theme of the staircase is Achilles, appropriately mythological and grandiose. Covering the walls and ceiling, it is awe inspiring.

Nice staircase decorations

Interesting facts (click to enlarge)

At the top of the stairs is the Blue Bedroom, which has been painted blue throughout the history of the house.

Blue Bedroom with floating canopy

The upstairs corridors are called the Gothick Corridors for the wallpaper, though the current wallpaper was put up in the 1990s. The pattern imitates the previous paper. Also, the hall contains the original three designs submitted for the house.

Wallpaper with Victorian house model

The three original designs

The Nursery and Day Room is where the governess would have cared for and instructed the children. The Day Room would have been a little retreat for the governess to relax without the children.

Governess's room (the cradle wouldn't have been there back in the day)

The Cedar Bedroom was used by the last lady of the house, Lady Georgina. Sir Harry Vernon and Georgina were married in 1861 and he received a baronetcy in 1885. They performed extensive charitable works in the local town. On their golden wedding anniversary, over 400 Hanbury villagers attended the celebration. One of the guides told us that they have about 300 thank you notes sent from the villagers to Harry and Georgina, a rather unprecedented show of affection between the Lord and the locals.

Wedding Anniversary invitation

The Cedar Room bed

A charming fireplace

Georgina's fabulous hair!

The Hercules Bedroom, Closet, and Dressing Room were the suite for the master of the house. They are furnished in 18th century style. The Dressing Room has a corner fireplace with a small statue of Hercules at the top, hence the name.

Hercules Bedroom (n.b.: Hercules never slept here)

Hercules statue (if it had one eye, I'd swear it was a Cyclopes)

Hercules clock

Outside is the final room, the Long Gallery. It is unclear whether it was ever attached to the house, but surely it was in regular use. For Thomas Vernon, it served as a gentleman's study. The walls were hung with maps, two globes sat on tables, some chairs and some books filled it out. Think of it as a 17th century "man cave." Later it was used as a picture gallery and an exercise space (though some stories persist that it was used to race the dogs when it was too wet outside). The family arms found over the fireplace are similar to that of Vernon-sur-Seine in Normandy, France, where the family originally came from.

Long Hall

Inside the Long Hall

Fireplace

The family seal

Our other favorite object outside the house was the horse mounting block by the front door. Four steps lead up to a small platform from which a person could easily mount a horse.

We're ready to ride!

The steps up to the horse mount

Speaking of horses, the nearby stables are now used for a tea shop, a gift store, a second hand book shop, a plant shop, toilets, and occasionally an ice cream cart is parked there too.

The Stables

The favorite part of the grounds for the children was the playground, of course. That will be in the next blog post.

Ampleforth Abbey Church

The heart of Ampleforth Abbey is the church dedicated to Saint Lawrence. The church is small but lovely with many nice little touches.

The nave is simple. When we were there, several of the pews were marked off with surnames. We had seen some people running around in fancy dress, so I suppose a wedding was later in the day. We were there at lunch time and were able to hear monks chant the Little Hour at mid-day.

Nave

Main altar

Behind the altar is the choir area where the monks pray the Divine Office.

The choir (after the monks left)

They were chanting as we came in. It sounded quite nice though we didn't have the books and couldn't follow along. They were done quickly, allowing us some time to explore. One of our discoveries was mice all over the church. "Yikes!" you might be thinking, but they are all decorative.

That's what they mean when the say "quiet as a church mouse"

The man who produced a large portion of the furniture for the Abbey was Robert "Mouseman" Thompson.  He had a habit of adding mice to his furnishings after a conversation where he talked about being "poor as church mice."  If wikipedia is to be believed, a bunch of other Yorkshire woodworkers imitated him but used different animals, like Thomas "Gnomeman" Whittaker (1910-1991), Colin "Beaverman" Almack, Wilf "Squirrelman" Hutchinson, and the like.

The stained glass is nice and has an interesting realism to it, in that many of the images cross between adjacent windows leaving out the part of the image that would have been blocked by the wall.

Crucifixion

East (or possibly west) facing window

They have more typical items, like a Madonna and Child statue and a fancy chair for the abbot.

Madonna and child

Tall canopy for the abbot's chair

Who was Saint Lawrence?

One of the seven deacons of Rome, he was martyred under Emperor Valerian's persecution in 258. As deacon, he took care of the material possessions of the church in Rome. When Pope Sixtus II was condemned to death, Lawrence was commanded to bring the treasures of the church before the Roman Prefect. He asked for three days to collect them. Gathering the poor, lame, widowed, and orphaned, he presented them as the treasures of the church. The infuriated prefect had a large, red-hot griddle prepared. Lawrence was bound to it. With that strange humor of the martyrs, at one point he said, "I'm done on this side, flip me over." According to Catholic Encyclopedia, the story of his martyrdom may be exaggerated, but he is a historical figure who was martyred and who had a great impact on the faith in Rome. His feast day is August 10.

Ampleforth Abbey

Ampleforth Abbey is a Benedictine community nestled in the Yorkshire countryside. Founded in 1802, the community has a variety of activities that keep the monks busy. There is a college where the monks teach. The 2000 acres of land include an orchard from which they produce a variety of foods and drinks. A cider mill and a sports centre and a pub are also located on the grounds. A visitor's centre explains their history and activities. And of course the Abbey Church has daily Mass and the Divine Office chanted throughout the day.
 

Main building with Sarah, Lucy, and Prior

Our time there started with the Visitor Centre. We were greeted by one of the monks who gave us a brief overview. Then he told the children an exciting story and asked for their help. He needed to find a special code word that lets the monks go into the church in times of trouble. The letters to the code word are hidden around the centre, usually next to cute little mice. If we decoded the right word, we could take it over to the shop and get a special treat. Jacob and Lucy diligently searched for letters while the rest of us looked at the displays about life at the abbey.

Some important figures in the Abbey's history

Monk fashion

A typical day described

The centre also had plenty of other activities for the kids, including a display on calligraphy.

Calligraphy is easy with a stamp!

Jacob leaves his mark

The children slowly began to discover letters. The first three were P, R, and R. We wondered if the code word was "Prior" since he was with us. Soon A, Y, and E proved us wrong. With all the letters in hand, we put them together into the word "PRAYER." We took our little slips of paper to the monk who had to confirm that we had decoded it properly. He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a Sonic Screwdriver, just like Doctor Who uses! (For those who care, I believe it was the Tenth Doctor's screwdriver, the blue one) He signed their sheets and sent us off to the main building where the shop is located.

Along the way we admired the grounds. Prior mooed at the cows. The cows mooed back!

Pleasant countryside

Loud cows

Back at the main building, we discovered the stairs up also had ramps, which makes it more accessible and more fun for the kids. They loved running up the ramps.

Hey, wait for me!

The main building houses the shop and the tea room. First we went to the shop to collect our goodies as well as make other purchases. The children turned in their sheets. The monk behind the desk asked what tool Brother so-and-so used to check their answers. Luckily, we adults were there and could prompt the children appropriately. They received their prizes--a couple of pencils. We also did some shopping and bought the recently published children's missal with the new Mass translation, a bottle of Damson gin (made at the Abbey), and a few bottles of the new Ampleforth Abbey Beer.

Yum!

The beer is quite delightful, made in the Belgium Trappist style. It has a nutty, bready flavor that I really like. It is a double, meaning it's double fermented and thus 7% alcohol, which is high for a beer. The bottle is 330 ml, smaller than the typical 500 ml for local brews. I guess the higher alcohol content, the less volume they give you. That's fine with me. Here's the write up on the beer:

In 1608 a community of Benedictine monks fled England for the safety of France. Determined to make a living for themselves, they began brewing their native beer- 'la biere anglaise'. It was made with hops and barley, then double fermented for strength and a 'champagne-like' sparkle. In 1793, escaping the French Revolution, they fled back to England and eventually settled in at Ampleforth in 1802, and built the Abbey. And today the beer, to a similar recipe, is being brewed and poured again.

Then we had a delightful lunch at the tea shop. My wife and I ordered the tea time for two, which meant a pot of tea and a tower of food. I really should have taken a picture of it, because it was quite beautiful. The top plate had two scones with cream and jam. The middle plate had a variety of sandwiches. The bottom plate had chocolate cake and apple pie made from the Abbey's apples. It was scrumptious.

We headed out to see the church and hear the noon prayer, which will be described in the next post!

Lucy tries to get the monk's book on the way to the church