Herstmonceux and Rye

The Penshurst pictures are, I am assured, on their way but meanwhile here are a few from our morning at Herstmonceux.

I have always pronounced this 'airstmonsur' in my mind but down in Sussex they say Hurstmonnsoo and as that's where it is they must know. The OH was of course very disappointed that there is really nothing left from the days when it was a Royal Observatory Site, although  there is a science centre there. However our break was called Opera and the Gardens of Sussex  or some such so we weren't there to see the science centre. 

 

It was a cold grey day in autumn but even so the gardens were fun. Like the other two we visited, they were split up into themed areas and although I expect they are much nicer to visit on a warm dry day when there are lots of flowers in  bloom I still enjoyed them.

 

A few pictures

 

 

Yup, it has a moat. It's really nice.

 

Virginia Creeper. I once went to a school whose walls were covered in this. It wasn't posh, but it did have a quadrangle.

 

An orrery. Love them. There is also an absolutely huge sundial, but it's so huge it's difficult to take a satisfactory photograph.

 

A statue from Zimbabwe. I never found out quite why but there are a lot of these dotted about. I rather took to them - difficult to say why. It would sound stupid if I said it was because they were so still, but some statues have a sense of movement. These had a sense of serene stillness. That's as close as I can get.

 

A rather bored peacock. Possibly he was a bit put out by the state of his tail. It certainly wasn't at its shimmering best.

 

I have no photos of the inside so maybe inside pictures were once again verboten. I don't remember. I do remember we had a soup and sandwich lunch there and that the tomato and basil soup should perhaps have been renamed basil and tomato. That said it was an interesting place to go.

 

I thought that Herstmonceux was the same day as we visited Rye but it can't have been as I do remember that the day we went to Rye the first thing we did when we fell off the coach was find somewhere to have lunch. We went to almost the first place we saw too, largely because it was called The Runcible Spoon which just appealed. The service was slow but the food was good. However should you ever be in Rye and find The Runcible Spoon jam packed, do not fret, because I have never visited anywhere with as many places to eat in as Rye has. I would say at least 50% of the retail units in the main streets are cafes or restaurants of one sort or another. Assuming you,re solvent, you need  never starve in Rye.

 

Of course we should have gone to see The Mermaid Inn and Lamb House where Henry James once lived but we didn't. Lest you should now think we are uncultured plebs of the first order I hasten to point out that we have been to Rye before, attended an all day function at The Mermaid where, to encourage us to leave, they switched off the heating at 4.00 pm although we weren't scheduled to finish until 5.00, and saw the outside of Lamb House. Since I am not a fan of either Henry James or E F Benson the outside was enough.

 

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with some Christmas cards that need writing as they are destined for overseas.