Salisbury Day 2

Today started with another visit to the cathedral in the early morning to see if I could improve on the shots from yesterday. I think they are a little better.

After a quick walk back to the hotel we had breakfast and then ventured off on a walk around town to kill some time before Mompessson House opened at 11am. We found the walk very pleasant with lots of little market stalls set up selling lovely looking fresh produce. We also found some beautiful swans in a canal which runs through the city which I am presuming is the River Avon.

Mompesson House is a National Trust property so we were able to use our Australian National Trust Cards to obtain free entry as we did with the Needles Old Battery as well. 

Mompesson is a beautiful Queen Anne style home in the close around Salisbury Catherdal. The close is the buildings around the cathedral and these buildings were originally built for the Bishop of Salisbury and his clergy but by mid 17th century it had become fashionable for the local gentry and professionals to live in the close.

The original owner was Thomas Mompesson who was from a local Wiltshire family and it was him and his son also named Thomas who bought up leases on the northern side of the close where there already was a substantial house. Son Thomas started the work on the present house but didn't finish it and it was his son Charles who commemorated his creation of the house by putting his initials on the gates and rainwater heads. After he died he left the house to his wife Elizabeth and her father William Longueville. She lived until 1751 but she surrendered the lease to her brother Charles who redecorated with stylish ceiling plaster and created the large Drawing Room and it is his work that still exists today. 

After this a number of people occupied the house, the Portman sisters, the Townsends until the last relative Elizabeth Townsend dies in 1939. The Dean and Chapter sell the freehold of the house to the Church Commissioners and it becomes the residence of the Bishop until 1951.

In 1952 the house was sold to Denis Martineau on condition that it passed to the National Trust on his death. On his death in 1975 he left all his possessions to his relatives and as a result the National Trust inherited Mompesson House in good order but empty. Over the last 3 decades the Trust has redecorated and refurnished the house as it might have been in its Georgian heyday. 

One of the features of the house is the plasterwork in all of the rooms. Most of it has been painted white in order to show it to it's best advantage.

Each room has a volunteer in it and who you can have a lovely chat with, which I did about aspects of the house or in my case talking about where I was from and what I do in Australia in historic houses.

As you walk through each room it has been beautifully done. The Dining Room was first and it had a beautiful display of 18th century drinking glasses as well as a set table for dinner.

Next was the Large Drawing Room and by far the most impressive one in the house. You have a good view into the garden from here. The marble fireplace is very grand indeed.

My husband being clever in the garden while I was enjoying the house.

The small drawing room is next and when Babara Townsend lived there it was her painting room. It is also used to house temporary exhibitions.

As you make you way through the Entrance Hall and onto the Staircase Hall the plasterwork really shines in these two places but was very hard to get a photo which would do it justice. 

The grandest room on the first floor is the Green Room and was used mainly as an informal family sitting room. It was hard to get a good photo of this room.

The south west bedroom has a four poster bed hung with pale blue silk. A truly lovely room.

From here you go back down to the library which has been left as it was in Denis Martineau and is the only room in the house with a ceiling painted in colour. 

A lovely garden reveals itself at the back of the house. It is a large central lawn enclosed by a circuit of straight paths between densely planted borders. Absolutely gorgeous.

Another interesting fact was that the house exterior and most of the rooms were used in a production of Sense and Sensibilty starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. So if you have seen it then you will remember the house.

After a lunch we make our way to Stonehenge via the local bus service. It is amazing to see these big double decker buses negotiate around and through the narrow roads that weren't made for cars at  all. This has been an interesting aspect of the trip to say the least.

We arrived at Stonehenge along with the masses of other people but they do have the system down pat in moving everyone from one place to the next. We caught the people mover train up to the site and can I say as you approach it is an impressive site.

We decided to walk the same way as the numbered path for the audio guide which we decided not to get as the images were enough for us. It is amazing to see it up close as you do have to wonder how these stones were put there with no technology that we have today.

It does make you wonder why and how this structure came to be here. It was built as a temple - palace of ceremony, of burial and of celebration. 

I won't go into a lot of detail as there is so much that can be interpreted from the site. The large stones on the outside are called Sarsens an extremely hard type of sandstone. The smaller stones are known collectively as bluestones. All of the stones come from Presili Hills from Wales. 

I did love that the day we were there the sky was brooding with cloud cover behind the stones. It gave it a sense of mystery that I think exists today about Stonehenge. 

It was also amusing to see the Asian visitors doing their very typical poses in front of the rocks. They do love a good photo opportunity.

Stonehenge inspires many people to study and interpret it and I can certainly understand why as it is a fascinating site.