The Constipated Elephant and Other Unusual Things - Snowshill Manor, Glos - Part 1

It was the hottest day of the year last Thursday - in some parts of the country (Cambridge for instance) it was the hottest recorded day ever.  I will concede - it was a tad too warm for me.  However, we had bought a couple of things at auction in Gloucestershire and needed to go and collect them.  The day before, we decided to tag Snowshill Manor (which belonged to Charles Wade who collected all the wonderful things inside it) into the day out - I have wanted to go there all the time we have lived here (William Morris' beautiful manor house (Kelmscott) is also at the top of the list.  Fortunately we have AC in the car, and it wasn't too bad a journey to the auction, but when we walked around the town it was pretty muggy and airless - and HOT.  However, we threw caution to the wind and derring do got the better of us and we drove on to Snowshill - getting a bit lost when near by as signage was non-existent and the road map we had not the most accurate.  We ended up having a little exploration of nearby villages including the wonderful village of Stanton which is where we would like to live if we ever win the lottery (don't hold your breath!)

You have to walk across the parkland (photos of wild flowers in another post) to get to the house, although I believe there was golf cart type transport for those who couldn't walk that far.  I took it easy and it was good to stretch our legs after hours in the car.  The house was not nice and cool as this house is - it held onto the heat and when we walked into this first room, I absolutely MELTED.  How I didn't end up as a puddle on the floor is beyond me!  However, lots of distractions whilst mopping my steaming brow, including this amazing cabinet in a Venetian style first popular in the 16th C, although this is much later and dates to about 1850.  A friend of Charles Wade found this in a shop in Taunton and quickly wrote to his friend, urging him to buy it.  The front is tortoiseshell, inlaid with brass and semi-precious stones.

This scale model is HMS Romulus - the actual full-size ship was made and launched at Buckler's Hard (in the New Forest) in 1777.  She carried 44 guns and within 2 years was part of Admiral Arbuthnot's squadron which attacked and captured Charleston, South Carolina.  Sadly by 1789 she ended up at Mauritius as a hulk, after having been captured and used by the French.  She must have had a very hard life to be abandoned after just 12 years from launching.

Another lovely piece of woodwork, carved and gilded and I believe, Chinese again.

There were a couple of magnificent "Armada chests" in the room - here is one opened to show the amazing lock system - German manufacture I believe, and each individual piece beautifully engraved with designs.

In the 1940s, when Wade purchased many of these Oriental pieces, prices were relatively cheap as no-one wanted such pieces in their homes.  Like large lumps of Victorian furniture today in fact!

This carving of an elephant amused me as he had SUCH an expression on his face and looked like he was . . . a tad constipated!!

It is no surprise to learn that Charles Wade was by profession an architect, as these scale models of houses for Hampstead Garden Suburb filled almost an entire room (on the tops of display cases).  He was born in 1883 and after leaving school he was articled to an Architect in Ipswich.  He went on to become a pivotal influence on the designs of houses at Hampstead Garden Suburb (led by Raymond Unwin, with Edwin Lutyens as consultant).  He was of course influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement.

This was a lovely well-equipped dolls house in "Mermaid" (all the rooms had different names - we started off in the Turquoise Room.  I tried to take a photo of the larger one, which had a downstairs room done up as a shop but a lady was stood in front of it doing her hair - repeatedly, so I gave up.  

A photograph of Charles Wade, with quite an intense expression, dressed up for one of the theatrical dramatic performances that he and his friends enjoyed.  I don't know how we missed it, but there was a costume room - so we will have to go back.  Apparently hid collection ran to something like 2,500 items of apparel.  Because of the sheer number of items, most of the collection has been moved to Berrington Hall near Leominster (that's just been added as another house to visit soon.)

Part of the display of children's toys, which was a delight.

Two Lace Making pillows and a wonderful old felt hat - drover's or Ag. Lab's perhaps?

Finally a collection of pattens, worn to keep shoes out of the mud when going across the yard.

More tomorrow.