Sunday
Another good day, weather wise, although cloudy in the afternoon. Elaine and Dorothy did their walk to Dunstanburgh Castle at 6:05 AM. The castle is 1¼ miles from our front door. I made tea, had some yoghurt, and planned the day.
Having been here for a week last year and the year before, we have seen a lot of the local sights. One place we had not been was Wallington Hall and Gardens, so that became our destination for the day. It’s about a 50 minute drive from Craster Rocks. Wallington is administered by England’s National Trust. We are members of the Royal Oak Society, the USA branch of the National Trust, so we get free admission and free parking at all their properties.
Wallington was the family home of the Trevelyan family. Sir Charles Phillips Trevelyan donated the entire estate to the National Trust in 1941, the first donation of its kind. The estate dates back to 1475 and was acquired by the Trevelyans in 1777. Charles Phillips Trevelyan, the last owner, was a Liberal Party and later Labor Party leader. Wallington is set in 100 acres of rolling parkland that includes a wooded valley, ornamental lakes, lawns, and a recently refurbished walled garden. Alongside the beautifully furnished interior, attractions inside the house include the desk where Thomas Babington Macaulay, brother-in-law of Sir Charles Trevelyan, wrote his History of England, a large collection of antique doll houses and eight murals in the central hall depicting the history of Northumberland, painted by William Bell Scott. Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Charles’s father, wrote a definitive history of the American Revolution here as well. The grounds are home to rare red squirrels.
We spent the first 90 minutes at Wallington walking through the woods and then through the walled garden at the end. The English love their gardens, and this is a good one. There were some interesting trees in the woods and lots of flowers blooming in the garden. Pictures tell the story.
After the garden we were the first to enter the house when it opened at noon. We walked through all the rooms on both floors which are arranged in a rabbit warren fashion.
After the house we had a picnic in the car park before driving home to Craster Rocks for my afternoon obligatory nap. There was excitement on the grounds on Dunstanburgh Castle as a woman had apparently fallen and broken an ankle. Our house is just inside the castle grounds, and there are two gates that keep the sheep and cattle that graze the grounds on the property. Elaine became the gatekeeper for the ambulance and coast guard vehicles that answered the emergency call.
We had dinner at home after all the excitement. Delicious soups that we had purchased at Sainsbury’s with a nice salad and some garlic bread. Wine too, of course.
Monday
Here’s a picture of Hi Ho Silver, our Peugeot 3008. It’s a very nice car and drives like a charm. Also here’s a picture of Craster Rocks, our home, which sits on National Trust property at Dunstanburgh Castle with a grand view of the North Sea. On Monday morning we stopped into Alnwick to get Hi Ho all spiffed up with a nice wash and wax.
With a clean Hi Ho, we headed a few miles south to Newbiggin by the Sea. They have a beautiful beach and a nice little RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) Lifeboat Museum. After visiting the museum, we had a picnic at at a table overlooking the beach walkway and the harbor’s iconic sculpture of The Couple by Sea Henry.
Then it was further south to visit the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall. In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s the Hall was the place to be invited to one of the Delaval’s famous parties. The Main Hall was gutted by a huge fire in 1822 and to this day, the Hall remains a shell. The Delavals abandoned the place and the Hastings Family moved into the West Wing. Lord Hastings retains a private apartment here today, but the estate was donated to the National Trust who plan to slowly restore it to its former glory. Come back in ten years and it might be done. Oh, the estate has more gardens, of course. An English estate without gardens does not exist. They also have stables, and the 1885 English Derby and St Leger winner, Melton, was stabled here.
