Not a Cheap Date
⬆intro next ➡Day 1 ~ Monday 2 September ~ Home to Exmouth via Wilton
Exmouth as an intermediate stop isn't really the most efficient, given that you have to travel back inland to find a bridge across the Exe, but then again we want intermediate stops at places we've not already been. The A303 itself offers little to meet that requirement, but not too far off it is the town of Wilton and its eponymous House which looks like a fine inter-intermediate stop.
This is the historical orientation of the facade, but the house has been remodelled many times over the centuries. The entrance today is behind the right-hand wing from this angle.
Imagine the building and grounds in the previous photo rotated 90 degrees clockwise and this is what you would see.
"Life's but a walking shadow: a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more"
Hey, not my words but old Billy's. Why is he here, though? Ah well, that's a bit of a problem. There is evidence, though disputed, that Shakespeare's company played here and he had an ongoing relationshop with the house. I have no opinion on the matter so will refrain from claiming one.
[Aside: it's sometimes harder than you might think not to have an opinion. True story from my past: me as Technical Director trying to explain to the Managing Director that I couldn't - not wouldn't - answer a question.
MD: "Do you think our competitor's product has this potential capability?"I'm still not sure he believed me.]
Me: "I don't know".
MD: "Well what do you think?"
Me: "I have no idea what their product might be able to do other than what we know it does."
MD: "Can you make an estimate?"
Me: "No, I don't have any way of judging."
MD: "If you had designed it, would you have given it this potential capability?"
Me: "Quite possibly; on balance I think I probably would."
MD: "So you DO think they can do it?"
Me: "NO, I DON'T KNOW! They might not have someone as smart as me, or I might not be as smart as I think I am, or their design priorities could have been completely different. If you want an estimate of the probability, I will confidently say it's somewhere between 0% and 100% AND THAT'S ALL I CAN SAY!"
"Elephants on my Cannon" - who sang that? Or was that an alternate universe and it never happened in this one? Well, regardless, we have a small cannon with even smaller elephants and I make no pretence of understanding what it means.
I trust you understand this is art, not just some bird flashing her tits. Lordy no, this is art.
And this one, as I surely don't need to tell you, is "School of Leonardo". Seriously, it's hard not to notice that it really does look just like La Giaconda if she suddenly felt the desire to get her kit off and have sex with Zeus in the form of a swan. (And that's another thing: most non-Christian religions and mythologies are just oozing sex in every direction: why is Christian tradition so dull?)
Sadly the Palladian Bridge is not accessible. Apparently it was partly based on a design by Palladio for the Rialto Bridge in Venice which was rejected. Obviously it was good enough for us Brits because four copies were built at other estates, and even Catherine the Great of Russia had her own!
And despite current political tensions, it appears we can still see this page on a Russian website describing that last one: https://tzar.ru/en/objects/ekaterininskypark/landscape/marblebridge.
There's also a small motor museum.
Brooklands, of course, is not far from us. Next time we visit we'll have to try and remember to see if they have any references to this car or its sister there
Also very reminiscent of Brooklands, this recreation of an old workshop. Not visible at this scale, but the drawing on the top shelf is dated 1962; I don't know whether it's meant to be an accurate representation of a particular era or just a bunch of stuff on a bench, but the overall effect to my eye is definitely much older.
Back on the road, we're spending the night at a B&B in Exmouth. We have no great plans, it just seemed a good first day's journey.
Satnav takes us to the place, but there's no obvious sign that this is where we're supposed to be., it's just a suburban house. But there's a small nameplate that reads "Hedgebank" and this is indeed it.
Nothing special but perfectly functional and not expensive.
It's only about six o'clock, and while the weather isn't particularly great, it's dry and not too cold, so we go for a little stroll into town.
I think this what the estuary is supposed to look like on a sunny day.
Today is not that sunny day.
And what this is meant to represent rather escapes me. Quite fun, though.
On our walk, we've been rather untaken by the various eateries on offer. Amanda had had a vision of a fine seafood platter at a bijou little marina bistro, but greasy-looking fish-and-chip shops are not the same. We'll just buy something we can eat in our room from M&S Food, and at least having the car means that we've been able to carry a case of decent wine with us.
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