I'd like to be able to say 'Just look at our dining room !' but I'd be fibbing.
We had the loveliest afternoon out at Killerton House near Exeter last week. Tea in the old stables when we arrived at about 3pm, and sitting next to this we decided we could have sat there all day...
but the second-hand bookshop beckoned before we 'did' the house...
The house and grounds decked overall for the festive season and late night opening on Wednesday.
Killerton a lovely Georgian house with a lived-in feel, and built as a temporary residence in 1775 pending the construction of a grand mansion which never happened. But with spectacular grounds extending to ten square miles, and all once owned by the Acland family for generations before being given to the National Trust in 1942, it wasn't hard to imagine the house in its heyday in the 1800s. The 10th Baronet, his wife and ten children would have had an idyllic life here, the loudest noise probably the horses and carriage wheels trundling along the driveway, long before the arrival of the nearby M5 and the drone of traffic in the background now.
It also occurred to us how rarely you get to see a National Trust property at dusk on a winter's afternoon, and the atmosphere around the house and peeking in the windows was a delight, we loved it. The staff couldn't have been more welcoming, were very happy for me to take pictures, and unlike so many properties with those well-placed teazels on the chairs, there were signs around saying things like 'Feet tired? Please do take a seat here.'
Fascinating costume exhibitions upstairs and one that included a Victorian Crazy Quilt on the bed that caught my eye.
That little red dress incidentally called a Transition Dress, which I assume may have meant for a young girl entering adolescence. I can get really carried away looking at clothes and just imagining who may have worn them.
As as we wandered around the torchlit grounds at dusk seeking out the Twelve Days of Christmas, the visit all felt like a lovely quiet beginning to our very quiet mid-winter break.
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