Festive Polesden

We took our festive visit to Polesden Lacey a few days after Christmas this year, rather than a couple of week before, as noticed at reference 2. The first day for a while that the weather had been reasonable, being at least bright and dry.

Clearly lots of other people thought so as well, with the car parks being near full, and by the time we left a couple of hours later they were queuing down the long drive outside, even past the gatehouse. The first time we have seen such a thing. Pain for local residents, good for local pubs: I dare say it is all in the price houses on the approach roads fetch, but I also dare say that some of the residents pre-dated the present popularity of the place. They might not be so pleased.

And the National Trust must have stumped up quite a bit for all the aluminium panels laid on the ground to try and save the grass a bit. Not to mention the time and expense of laying them and then taking them up again - which I assume they do in the spring.

The primary objective was to visit the interior of the house, dressed up for Christmas, with this year's theme being the partridge in a pear tree, last noticed at reference 3.

The first item of interest was a rather fancier version of our crab bowl, with the key owner, one Mrs. Greville, being a noted collector of china & porcelain. She providing the money (from her natural father's beer), while Mr. Greville provided the blood, very much part of the rather louche circle of young men who kept Bertie (of Lillie Langtry fame) entertained - before, in his case, dying in middle age of pneumonia, in the wake of an operation for cancer of the throat.

Our own bowl is to be found at reference 4.

The partridge, with all the trimmings.

The fake snow in one of the inner courtyards.

And lots of other festive stuff dotted about the grand ground floor rooms. All in all, not really my sort of thing, but the trusties seem to like doing it and the ladies seem to like looking at it.

Part of the cold-frame complex, dating from the glory days of a score of gardeners, between the two wars. I wonder if the garden heritage team are agitating for redecoration?

Some signs of life in the winter garden, with the first snowdrops and winter aconites just showing. Helped along with a generous helping of horse manure.

On the way out, we had a flashy looking (but older) convertible in the queue to get in, braving the winter weather with the lid down, but I was not able to get a picture in the time available. I was reminded of the story that, for some reason, we in Britain like convertibles far more than our uncertain weather would suggest.

The restaurant inside had been crowded and we thought that the pubs in the immediate vicinity were going to be crowded too , so we headed home to soup instead. BH not best pleased when I thought to add some lumps of swede to the (Knorr) chicken noodle foundation, but I thought it was fine. Knorr are rather keen on mono-sodium-glutamate in their otherwise useful soup powder, and you need to chuck in a few vegetables to mask it.

PS 1: with a fine view of an elusive Wellingtonia on the crest of a hill south of Leatherhead, as we headed home. Seen before, but not traced to its roots. And this afternoon I failed even to find the right bit of Street View, to attempt to run it down that way. Maybe the problem is that the relevant stretch was photographed in the summer, with leaves blocking the view to the north.

PS 2: our regular visits to Polesden Lacey mean that we get good value out of our National Trust subscription. Hampton Court Palace pays for the Historic Royal Palaces and Wisley pays for the RHS - but we don't do so well with English Heritage, only getting in about one visit a year, usually on the Isle of Wight.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/autumn-lacey.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/christmas-lacey.html. The largest of the three posts arising from our Christmas visit last year.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/12/festive-sprout.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/10/baked-sausage.html.