Monday, January 30, 2012

Searching for Regency England

All right, so I love castles.  Don't forget that the castles scattering Great Britain today scattered them equally during the Regency. Our lords and ladies saw them then, just as we see them today. Well, perhaps not quite, because work to make them accessible has happened more recently. But they were there.

We found Wardour Castle an English Heritage site in Wilshire quite by chance when we were driving out to one of the great houses. Of course we could not resist taking a peek.

The castle was destroyed during the English civil war and although the Arundells managed to come through it all in the end, in the mid 1700's they built a new castle (really a palladian manor house) and the castle was left to grace the estate as a kind of folly.

The old castle is unique in Britain, having been built as a six sided structure in  the late 14th century, mimicking those the owner, Lord Lovell had seen in France.  So you can see the actual shape of it, I am including an artists impression of how it looked when it was built.

You will not doubt notice the little clump of daisies beneath the sign.

So my interest is in the castle as a ruin, since that is how it would have been for our Regency ladies and gentlemen visiting this part of the country, and who knows, perhaps they stayed with Lord Arundell.  But if you like castles or earlier periods of history, no doubt you will also enjoy looking at the ruins.

Next time we will take a look around the castle and its grounds and a sneak peek at the New Cast5le.

Until next time, Happy Rambles
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 30, 2012 at 7:00 AM

    This would make for an interesting scene in a Regency romance, touring the ruins of an old castle--a real castle. If I'm not mistaken, Eloisa James put something of the sort into one of her novels, though memory fails as to which.

    Great post! What must it have been like, living in this monstrous phenomenon from day to day??

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2012 at 8:19 AM

    HJ

    From memory, one of the towers at Caernarfon Castle is six-sided too, for the same reason - it was easier to defend. I saw it recently in the wonderful series by Dr Jonathan Foyle, Climbing Great Buildings, made for BBC2 and currently being re-shown on BBC4.

    I love the idea of Regency ladies and gentlemen exploring castle ruins!

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  3. UnknownJanuary 30, 2012 at 8:41 AM

    I agree, Alyssa and HJ it would make for a great scene, and this is not the only castle I have found as a folly in the grounds of a great house. On has to be a little careful. The floors in this one have been put in recently, but the stairs and the towers would work really well. I have some more pictures which I will post of the views of the house from the ruin.
    Thank you for dropping in.

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