We got up this morning as normal and decided to go to breakfast before packing, as it turned out we are one of only about 3 groups staying in the hotel so breakfast was very much about service rather than help your self, however, this did mean that Chris got fried bread which made him happy! After breakfast we went back to the room and packed up, then we decided to head off as although we have had to book a tour time for the house we are visiting, the grounds open at 11:00 and it is about 1.5 hours away decided we would just wonder round the grounds when we got their and if we were very early we could always have a coffee. As it turned out we ended up making up time so arrived at exactly 11:00 but that was only because we very much stuck to the speed limit and in fact spent quite a lot of time under it! After checking in and confirming our attendance on the tour we went for a walk round the grounds, they have a fantastic children’s play area which we really wanted to go on but decided we probably shouldn’t but they have a helter skelter around a tree, a massive climbing net as well as a number of tree houses and swings, but as I say we decided it was best not to go on these so we walked round the water garden, and played on the whispering bench which really does work, then walked back along the river which just gave us time to have a look round the stables which now house the current Earl’s classic car collection, horsepower of a different kind, he has some rather nice cars as well as some I wouldn’t bother with but he does have a nice Aston Martin and Jaguar, by the time we finished looking round it was time to head for the house for our tour. It has been the county seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years, it was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey, following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII he presented the the Abbey and it’s estates to 1st Earl of Pembroke. The family seem to have quite a survival instinct, maintaining close links with Royalty, apparently Charles I stayed here and the house was remodelled to accommodate him, but they managed to regain the house after the English Civil war so obviously downplayed their links with royalty. It is still a family home, although unlike some of the houses we have been to we were shown round by guides rather than members of the family. Wilton still has a male line of succession and the current Earl was the fourth child and only son of seven children so without him the house would have passed to the Carnarvon family who own Highclere! The state rooms were designed, named and reserved for the use of high-ranking members of state as house-guests, state rooms are nearly always of an odd number because the largest and most lavish room is placed in the centre with a symmetrical sequence of smaller but still very grand rooms leading from the central room either side. They have some fantastic paintings but the tour focused on these rather than the history of the family which was a bit of a shame, all the same it was nice to look round and by the time the tour finished it was time to find something to eat so we went to the pub, then back home to reality!!
