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Friday 19 March 2010

Bonnie Bobby Shafto

This is Bobby Shafto's front garden. It has been turned into a deer park and the fallow deer are very tame and can be approached easily, albeit quietly and carefully. They too, were enjoying a really sunny and fairly mild early spring day. We were walking with Walter and the Durham County Walkers, around Byers Green. At one stage we walked through the grounds of Whitworth Hall, which was the family home of the Shaftos for twelve generations.
It is now a hotel and serves coffees, elegantly in the conservatory for those who can't afford the full meal or room tariff.
The little church at Whitworth has the tombs of a crusading knight and his wife adjoining one end and....

.....and the Shafto family crypt in the corner of the graveyard. The snowdrops and crocuses are in flower but the daffodils are still dragging their heels this spring. They are up but still tightly budded. We are far enough north to show most blossoms up to a month after the south of England.

When we returned, Bobby-the-Builder had transformed the space beside the new bathroom into a walk-in dressing room.
We spent a happy hour hanging up all the clothes.
Cheers Gillian

4 comments:

Heide said...

I love the knight's crossed legs on the statue/crypt. I wonder what the significance is. If I ever win the lottery then I'm going to spend at least a month frequenting the old estates in England. The closet looks fabulously organized with lots of sleeping nooks for Tigger!

Heide said...

Looking again at the knight, it appears that not only are his legs crossed, but his right hand is down like he's reaching for his groin. Maybe he was "Sir Whizzer from Pee-Alot".

Unknown said...

The crossed legs indicate that he was one of the knights of the crusades and his feet rest on a serpent to indicate the slaying of the "infidel".
Mind you they were always a long way from a toilet in those days.
Cheers Gillian

carol said...

I loved the nonchalently crossed legs and was going to comment but Heidi and Gillian's last comment had me in pleats - nothing left to say! Except perhaps that I though Bobby Shfto was Irish - shows the depths of my ignorance!