A Little Place In The Country

We are now members of the National Trust, so there. Yes today, since we have a car for the week, we took the plunge and joined the National Trust. This organization preserves and makes available to the public, a large number of historically and architecturally significant buildings in England. They have reciprocal agreements with similar bodies in other countries including Canada. With our membership we can visit all of these properties free of charge, if you don't count the hunk of cash we left with them today.

We drove about 30 miles today to the village of Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire. Here in 1874-89 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild built a fine country home to be used on weekends and for summer holidays. It seems Ferdy was a fan of the French Chateaux, much the same as Sheelagh. He had gathered a startlingly large collection of various art pieces and he needed a place to display it. Here was the place.

We were allowed in at 12:30 and we were there until 4:30 seeing room after room of beautiful pieces of Meissen and Sevres porcelain. There are dishes as well as decorative objects. Paintings by Gainsborough et al. furniture by French designers are everywhere. de Rothschild entertained Kings and Queens as well as artists and business types in large and small numbers.

Here are a few pics.