I'm talking to the gentleman at the gate to Audley End House.
"So...we have spent the day at Audley End. Just what does 'End' refer to in British terminology?" I asked the man.
"Well," he begins...and I can tell he is going to lean into this explanation..."You have just visited Audley End and that refers to the Audley Family who owned the estate."
(Silence)
"And the 'End' Portion of the name refers to.......?" I ask again, hoping against hope.
"It refers to the end of the name of Audley End." he helpfully replies.
(Silence)
"I guess it is time for us to leave now." I answer.
"Jolly good, Have a good day sir!"
It's impossible to get to Downton Abbey these days (Highclear Castle) so we decided to visit a country estate so we could get the feel of Being to the Manor Born. And I have decided, no both Makaila and I have decided that to be a part of the Aristocracy in the 1800's is totally a great way to live.
Today we went out of London to visit Audley End House. It is now owned and run by English Heritage and they have done a wonderful job of preserving and presenting this treasure.
But, let's back up a bit.
Like everything we have see the past two weeks...recorded history begins with the Romans, who probably settled on land which was that of another peoples. In any case, Rome rules and then collapses and the Christian Church steps in and on this land a Benedictine Monestery is built. Walden Abbey thrives until, like so much else of history in England....Henry VIII.
His dispute with Rome caused the Abbey to be suppressed and the land was given to his chancellor, Thomas, Lord Audley. He converts the monastic buildings to a house.
Unless I am unable to read between these lines, the King stole the religious abbey and gave it to one of his cronies as a reward, who then turned it into a house. Though it was and is a bit more grand than most houses.
It's good to be King.
Over the centuries the house grew and the house shrank. One occupant doubled its size and another could not bear the upkeep and tore down a large portion of it. The estate passed from one Duke to another Lord and back and forth. Gardens and stables were added and what we see today is essentially the look of the early 1800's though at that point the owner sought to recover the Jacobean character of the place.
We strolled the garden and forest and found it all to be remarkable. We saved the tour of the house for last.
For some reason, the owner of the estate or owner of the objects in the house won't allow photos and the explanation for that got all legal-y. Even the guide seemed a bit perplexed as to the ban on photography.
Nevertheless, we carried on.
I liked that it had no one but two libraries, floor to ceiling books. And for some reason the dining room was on the second floor. I asked if that was a bit inconvenient for the staff to have to carry the food so far. (It WAS inconcenient for the staff...but they were only staff,) The kitchen was downstairs in back; not a part of the main house. This was because kitchens with their great ovens were always burning down and it was safer for the rest of the house to have it separate. So, the servants had 175 yards to traverse to get the cornish game hen to the table of The Lord and Lady. By then it was cold but the most important part of the meal was the presentation and not the tempurature or delictablity of the food. In other words, it was better to look good than to taste good.
The estate also had not one but two halls with cases of stuffed birds and estate game on display. I counted about 60 such glass cases with hundreds of animals. It's a wonder any game is left north of the Thames. The guide says that some people are upset by the display of the stuffed animals, which are really quite remarkable and well done. I asked the guide if people were equally upset about the hard lives of the servants. "I suppose not," he said.
There was one huge bird called a Great Bustard which was stuffed. It went extinct but was recently reintroduced to the area by some Great Bustards from Russia. Apparently the bird was slow to get flight and was easy prey to foxes and hunters and its greatest hinderance to longevity: "it tasted quite delicious" said the guide. Also in one of the cases was the tusk of a wooly mammoth which was unearthed on the property.
The master bedrooms consisted of sitting rooms, dressing rooms and bedroom. I was hoping for lots of secret passageways for the servants to appear and disappear into for dramatic effect but there was only one such passageway off the master bedrooms and that was added later.
King George III (Mad King George) was to make a stay at the estate many centuries ago. The house and staff prepped for weeks. They even purchased a new $70,000 bed (in current money) for the Royal Visit. Alas, King George took ill and did not show and the bed was not used for many years.
One entire wing of the third floor was converted for the children and governess. Many families and children lived in the estate over the centuries and our tour included information about one family in the early 1800's. The eldest son Richard, when a child served as a Page at the Coronation of William IV. The boy's outfit cost more than the nursery maid earned in a year's time. Of the five boys in that family, two died in the Crimean War and one nearly died in the army in Canada. One inherited the estate and Latimer became a lecturer and clergy at a college at Cambridge. As the display said about him: he was a "good but dull man." His sermons were noted for being short and succinct. (There are worse things that could be said about clergy.)
The servants work area, laundry, kitchen, and countless other buildings indicated that the estate grew and fed itself. Animals were raised and slaughtered and smoked and served. Those animals and other food which did not serve the household were sold for a profit in the market. It was a self-sustaining village unto itself and was really quite fascinating.
But behind it all were real people who lived hard lives so that the Aristocrats could live lives of ease and importance. Said one of the guides, "They thought they were ordained by God to rule." That's a rather universal trait, I assured her. The estate had a number of great displays on the workers themselves and how they lived and got along in life. The main theme was that life was hard, but these workers knew at the end of the day that they had a bed and the next day they would have food on the table. And that their sons and daughters would have work when they reached the proper age. It was a self perpetuating system fostered by a mindset of another age.
In the third floor of the house was the coal room. Named because it held coal which heated water there on the third floor. Hot water for baths was put in buckets and carried by servants to the rooms of the masters and mistresses. But in an odd occurance, the only working toilet was there on the third floor...for the servants. The Aristocracy did not have such item.
It never occurred to them that they might need one.
After all...they had the servants to whisk their nightsoil away each morning.
Indeed.
Peace, Bob
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