That was going to be my next question. :) I love that first picture. What fantastic stone work and the arches and windows are special. Who takes care of the property?
Thanks for posting these, Tony. Looks like my kind of place.
I really enjoy your photos--I find them deeply satisfying in a strange (for me) way--I haven't been an Anglophile since I got over my Beatles phase in high school.
But there's no way I would have wanted to actually live in the 15th century, fabulous dinner parties or no.
I'd like to visit the 15th century in a bubble, and go home at the end of the day.
There's something real about the 15th century English art and architecture you photograph. Unfiltered. Authentic. Not dressed up.(A lot of French architecture is overdressed.)
I'd want to take my toothbrush and various other modern amenities if I were visiting.
That's an interesting point you make. English castles of the period are certainly more "homely" than the average French chateau- maybe because we were further from the epicentre of the Renaissance. Scottish architecture is heavily indebted to the French- see my pictures of Falkland palace- but somehow manages to take the French forms and make them into something craggy and northern. Falkland Palace is a fairly tame example of Scottish renaissance architecture- probably because it's the earliest- but later examples of the style can be truly monstrous.
The Scots and the French were allies (against the damn English of course) and the Stuart kings were very much at home in the French court. Mary Queen of Scots grew up at the French court and was more French than Scots. Falkland Palace is touted as the earliest Renaissance building in Scotland (perhaps in the whole of Britain) and French masons were imported to build it.
I always enjoy your photos-- never yet having left the U.S. (and living predominantly on the West Coast), I appreciate borrowing your eyes when you go adventuring. I've met trees older almost than history itself, but I've seen very little dating earlier than the late 1800s as far as architecture goes. Images like these-- I don't know that I can wrap my head around all that history. The top picture you've posted here in particular is a punch to the gut, and I don't quite know why. Maybe because it looks less ruined, less part of a picturesque landscape, and more like someone ought to be walking down those steps on their way to dinner.
Warkworth Castle is only slightly ruined- all the walls are sound- and it wouldn't take much to make it habitable again. Of course many houses of that period are lived in. Falkland Palace, which I featured a few posts back, was restored and refurbished in the 19th century- and very cosy it is too.
Hmmm: I seem to remember that some fireplaces actually had seating at their edges.
If one agrees with Jung's theory, that great emotional conflict leads to "markers" in terms of the archetypes, then maybe that's what happens with ghosts, too--when there's a moment of emotional upheaval, it's marked by energy-in-the-air, visible.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 06:36 pm (UTC):)
I love that first picture. What fantastic stone work and the arches and windows are special. Who takes care of the property?
Thanks for posting these, Tony. Looks like my kind of place.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 08:44 pm (UTC)We met the on-the-spot custodians- a very friendly couple.
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Date: 2008-11-01 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 09:00 pm (UTC)But there's no way I would have wanted to actually live in the 15th century, fabulous dinner parties or no.
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Date: 2008-11-01 09:41 pm (UTC)I'm glad you like the photos.
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Date: 2008-11-01 09:53 pm (UTC)There's something real about the 15th century English art and architecture you photograph. Unfiltered. Authentic. Not dressed up.(A lot of French architecture is overdressed.)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 10:46 pm (UTC)That's an interesting point you make. English castles of the period are certainly more "homely" than the average French chateau- maybe because we were further from the epicentre of the Renaissance. Scottish architecture is heavily indebted to the French- see my pictures of Falkland palace- but somehow manages to take the French forms and make them into something craggy and northern. Falkland Palace is a fairly tame example of Scottish renaissance architecture- probably because it's the earliest- but later examples of the style can be truly monstrous.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 12:43 am (UTC)"Scottish renaissance" sounds like an oxymoron to me, but I am clearly pig-ignorant of that part of the world.
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Date: 2008-11-02 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 10:46 pm (UTC)Wow.
Date: 2008-11-02 10:09 pm (UTC)Thank you for sharing.
Re: Wow.
Date: 2008-11-03 10:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-04 04:48 pm (UTC)There's something wonderfully creepy about those low arches; one can imagine how cold in winter--what are they? (The bottom photograph)
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Date: 2008-11-04 05:39 pm (UTC)Those are kitchen fireplaces. They're big enough to roast a whole ox or pig.
In another castle I visited there's a haunted kitchen- where a ghostly woman has been observed placing a baby in a fireplace very much like these.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-04 05:54 pm (UTC)If one agrees with Jung's theory, that great emotional conflict leads to "markers" in terms of the archetypes, then maybe that's what happens with ghosts, too--when there's a moment of emotional upheaval, it's marked by energy-in-the-air, visible.