Picture 1: rock garden at Wisley, with a little bit of alpine meadow in the background
Picture 2: terraced rock garden
Picture 3: Country Garden
Picture 4: white flower, Mixed Borders garden
Picture 5: inside of a poppy, Country Garden
Picture 6: Mom and me in the Rose Garden
Picture 7: Archbishop's Palace section of house at Knole
Picture 8: fossil of extinct prehistoric deer-ish thing
Picture 9: purple roses in the Rose Garden at Wisley
Picture 10: Winchester Cathedral with a monument in front to Hampshire soldiers who died in WWI and WWII
After a delicious breakfast of perfect poached eggs, roasted tomatos, and thick bacon, Mom and I made our way out of Tunbridge Wells and up to Knole. Since we'd done Sissinghurst (the first item on our original itinerary) yesterday, we had a morning slot to fill! Knole is a deer park, garden, and fantastic manor house in Kent, just outside of the M25 London ring road. We only drove through the park on our way to the house but it was beautiful, lightly wooded, rolling, and filled with wandering spotted deer. The drive up to the house had numerous signs warning visitors not to feed or pet the deer for health reasons and of course we saw someone right in front of the door to the house doing both. The house itself was dim and dark (all that Jacobean wood paneling) and unbelievably majestic. We saw a number of galleries and bedrooms, all home to an outstanding, world-famous, collection of Stuart furniture. In one carefully climate-controlled exhibit, a few of the best pieces were kept including a tapestried chair that had been partially restored with some undamaged fabric found under the seat cushion. The vibrancy of the original colors was amazing and let us imagine how beautiful all of the drab and worn furniture was about 350 years ago! We weren't allowed to take pictures, of course, but house was simply stunning.
After Knole, Mom learned how to drive on British roads without a hitch and we made our way west to Wisley Gardens, a huge complex supported by the Royal Horticultural Society. It was located just a few miles south of the ring road towards the southwest side of London...I hope that makes sense. The Wisley complex includes many different themed gardens, an arboretum, a huge glasshouse, an orchard, model gardens, a pine forest, a heather meadow, and probably a few more things that I'm not remembering at the moment. We had nowhere near enough time to see it all (only about 2 hours) but managed to see a fair bit. Earlier we discussed the possibility of going back at the end of our trip, but I won't be surprised if we find our day filled jam-packed with new places. My pictures don't really do Wisley justice, but the garden and flower pictures above are from there and I have MANY more.
After Wisley we made our way a bit further west on the ring road and then turned south on the M3 toward Winchester. We're staying tonight in a B&B called St. Margaret's just a few blocks from the Winchester Cathedral. The owner has two beautiful cats, one of whom recently had 4 adorable black kittens! We spent some time this evening in the kitchen playing with them, complimenting the mama cat, and reassuring the 17-year old calico Rosie that she was a beautiful, sweet kitty and of course appreciated just as much as those hyperactive kittens. We did a quick walk of the the downtown area before dinner, walking around the Cathedral and seeing the remains of one of the old medieval castles. Tomorrow morning we'll see more of Winchester before we head on our way.
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