Walled garden

Whilst Castle Howard's grounds are mostly sweeping parkland, lakes and woodland, there is also an extensive walled garden, beautifully laid out and immaculately tended. At this time of year the stand-out stars are the roses, festooning walls and borders, lending a light fragrance to the air as you walk past. 

The gardens were presided over by an imposing 'larger than life' statue of George William Frederick Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle (1802-1864), who had an illustrious career as an MP and, later, Member of the House of Lords. For a few years he held the role of Chief Commissioner for Woods and Forests, and was apparently an enthusiastic champion of Kew Gardens and instrumental in securing funds for a significant plant-hunting expedition to the Himalayas by Sir Jospeh Hooker. 

Tony Cragg sculptures

This summer at Castle Howard there is an exhibition of sculptures by internationally renowned artist Sir Tony Cragg, who is British but now lives in Germany. I think I've seen pieces by him before, perhaps at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. They are monumental works, made of a variety of materials: steel, bronze, glass, wood, fibreglass, plastic. His work pushes the boundaries of the materials and contains echoes of his interest in geology, palaeontology and biology as well as the human form.  

I can't honestly say I warm to them... To me they are 'interesting' but not 'beautiful'. They did, however, look commanding in the landscape around Castle Howard and in parts of its interior too, and the pieces were carefully chosen for their locations (though not created as 'site specific').

In the 'Temple of the Four Winds' - an elaborate summerhouse, designed by Vanbrugh in the 18th century as a place where the Howard family could have refreshments (prepared by servants in a kitchen beneath the structure), and sit and chat or read - there was an elaborate Cragg artwork made of sand-blasted glass vessels. There were two stewards keeping an eye on it, who seemed keen to chat as there were few visitors braving the rain to walk out to the Temple. 

The amazing stucco work by Francesco Vassalli that decorates the Temple dates back to 1738. 

Of all the Tony Cragg pieces I noticed, I most liked this one (below), for its sinuous shape and the interesting way it incorporated its surroundings through the twists and bumps in the glass. 

Castle Howard's lakes

Castle Howard's grounds are extensive and contain several lakes. On such an overcast and stormy day, there were some dramatic scenes to be captured. 

In common with many of our stately homes, the grounds contain numerous follies and focal points in the landscape. In the distance (below) you can see the Mausoleum, where generations of the Howard family are buried. In front of it is the New River Bridge. In the last photo you can just about see some of the statues that line the path to the 'Temple of the Four Winds'. 

Unfortunately the heavy rain rather spoiled our walk. Can you see it bouncing off the water in the photo below? We got absolutely drenched, several times! If it had been a nicer day, exploring the grounds would have been much more enticing. We had a map but it soon disintegrated in the wet! 

Music while you walk

Whilst we were exploring the interior of Castle Howard, a gentleman started to play the piano in the Long Gallery, which was rather pleasant. I gather that is a very expensive make of piano: Bösendorfer. 

Owing to the fire, many of the rooms are still quite bare with exposed timberwork and brick walls, which are gradually being renovated.  Some are furnished, like the appropriately named Turquoise Drawing Room, which had fabric-covered walls and many portraits, though some, I think, were copies rather than originals.   

This is the Crimson Dining Room (imaginative names!) with its ornate fireplaces and elaborate chandeliers. 

The dome above the Great Hall collapsed in the catastrophic fire in 1940 and has been rebuilt. Originally it had been decorated by the Venetian artist Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini in 1709-12. High up in the dome itself, 'The Fall of Phaeton' is a reproduction of his original, painted by the Canadian artist Scott Medd in 1963. 

The family Chapel dates to 1870 and is richly decorated in the pre-Raphaelite style with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones designs and lots of gilt, very opulent.  (I prefer my chapels to be somewhere in between the austerity of Ampleforth (see last Monday's post) and this level of extravagance!) 

I absolutely adore Morris/Burne-Jones stained glass though. The faces of the figures are always gorgeous. 

 

Castle Howard

The focal point of our mini-break was a visit to Castle Howard, one of the north of England's most celebrated stately homes, which I've been meaning to see for ages. Privately owned, it has been the home of the Howard family for over 300 years. You may recognise it from various films and TV programmes as it is often used as a location, most famously for 'Brideshead Revisited' in the 1980s and more recently in some episodes of 'Bridgerton'.  

Unfortunately the weather on the day we were there was atrocious. It was briefly sunny on arrival, so we opted to explore the grounds and gardens first but hadn't got far when the heavens opened and we got soaked... the first of several soakings from very heavy rainstorms, which robbed the day of some of its joy!  

It is a very grand building dating from 1699, though it took over 100 years to complete, with a lavish Baroque section by John Vanbrugh constructed in the early 1700s. The 4th Earl added a Palladian wing, so the house is rather oddly unbalanced. Sadly, in 1940, when it was being used as school for evacuees during the war, a large fire took hold and tore through more than a third of the building, causing the dome to collapse into the Great Hall. What we see now, both inside and out, is a reconstruction overseen by George and Lady Cecilia Howard and their descendants, beginning in the 1960s and still continuing. 

It is worth seeing but, to me, lacks the glory and splendour of Harewood House, our more local stately home, which I love.