Anglesey Abbey

[Lieutenant Broughton in full dress uniform of the First Life Guards in 1921]

A couple of weeks ago, one of our occasional visits to Anglesey Abbey, a Cambridge version of Poleseden Lacey. Once a priory, never an abbey, then passing through various hands, including those of Carrier Hobson, winding up with the Broughton brothers in 1926. The offspring of a British sewage engineer who managed to hook a widowed oil heiress while working in the US. Very much in the fashion of Mrs. Greville of Polesden Lacey, the money was then used to buy their way into the upper reaches of London society, including a commission in a swanky regiment for his older son. Who went on, with his younger brother, to cut a dash in racing & art circles, with Anglesey Abbey being conveniently close to Newmarket. With the Abbey eventually winding up in the welcoming arms of the National Trust.

The car park was even bigger than the one at Polesden Lacey, quite busy when we turned up mid-morning Into the very smart visitor centre - including cafeteria, shop and all the usual trimmings - where BH managed to get us in despite having left her card at home.

A Wellingtonia in rather cramped quarters. But it was making the height if not the weight. Included here as the rules committee eventually ruled that a score of three was appropriate for the much larger number of specimens to be found in the grounds of the abbey - and this one would be four.

Water works associated with Lode Mill, just visible right.

A number of very busy water flies had gathered at this patch of open water. Nothing to suggest to me what had attracted them there.

A reminder of our yew collecting days. And as well as the Wellingtonia, there were also some big beech trees. Some cyclamen in flower and what looked like an impressive display of dahlias about to be in flower.

Not sure why this one caught my eye, but Google Image suggests morus alba, otherwise the common mulberry. A bush or tree which apart from providing the favourite food of the silk worm, has berries which look a bit like loganberries or blackberries and which are edible.

What I took to be an old pear on the side of the big house. I never did get to the bottom of why pear trees are productive for so much longer than their near relatives, the apples.

Nor did I get to the bottom of how this chimney worked. It did not seem to be convenient to any likely fireplace. Is it worth braving the interior just for a chimney?

Some interesting books in the second-hand bookshop, sensibly priced, although I did not, on this occasion at least, fall for anything. Rather more handsomely furnished and rather better stocked than that at Polesden Lacey.

A large queue in the cafeteria by the time we got there but, as driver, I was allowed to sit. Which did not stop me getting into a muddle on the way home and being carried off along the A14 all the way to Newmarket. Which has the upside of renewing our acquaintance of this interesting old race-horse town and its High Street, decorated with a number of race-horse themed works of outdoor art.

Plus a clock tower which was rather grander than the one we have in Epsom: perhaps a little big for our High Street, but very much the same sort of thing all the same.

All in all, very handsome gardens which we will no doubt visit again when we are in the area.

PS 1: the First Life Guards might sound like a crack regiment now, but it had its origins in Oliver Cromwell's personal guard and the Maison Militaire du Roi of Louis XIV. Charles II, not unreasonably, was careful about his personal safety and built on what had gone before. See reference 5.

PS 2: the wholemeal flour bought from Lode Mill on a previous, if not the last, visit, noticed at reference 4, was used in 9½ from mid October until near the end of November 2013. Where by a half batch I mean making up the last 6oz from Lode with Canadian. In those days, the batches were rather smaller than they are now using 32oz plain white and 11oz wholemeal, rather than 40oz plain white and 16oz wholemeal. The resultant bread appears to have been quite satisfactory, attracting no special comment.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglesey_Abbey.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Huttleston_Broughton,_1st_Baron_Fairhaven.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Regiment_of_Life_Guards.

Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/10/two-birds-with-one-stone.html. An earlier visit.

Reference 5: Horse Guards - Barney White-Spunner - 2006.

Reference 6: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2008/08/further-geeking.html. The plebeian origins of reference 5.

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