Chapter 40 History Lessons, and What’s On!
There was a group of 24 people assembled in the entrance hall and Buffy and Spike joined them for the tour.
“This’ll be good to see how much I remember, I haven’t done this since I was about 14!” Spike whispered.
“Right then...can you all hear me at the back there?” The lady asked, she was tall, well dressed in a dark blue suit, pale blue blouse tied with a pussy-cat bow at the throat and medium high heels.
“Yes, thanks”
“Good, so if you’d like to follow me…I will try and answer any questions you have after the tour………
This is the hall, known as the Great Hall. It was built around the mid 15th century, and quite modern for it’s time…the handrail to the staircase is made from the finest oak from this very parkland, and oak trees from this estate later went to make the great ships of Walter Raleigh. The oldest part of the house is behind a glass panel, which you can see on your right there, in the corner. It’s what remains of a deep well, it goes down for about thirty feet. The date on the side of the well was 1344. The main house was commissioned and built for Roger de Montmorency, brother of Elizabeth Woodville, a widow who married King Edward the 4th. The throne changed hands quickly in 1483, with the young prince Edward the 5th, reigning for just four months. Through Sir Thomas More, and Henry 7th, and then ultimately William Shakespeare, King Edward the 5th was believed to have been one of the ‘princes in the tower’ murdered by Richard the Third, this was false. It was also false that Richard was a hunchback.
After Richard the 3rd, Henry the 7th then took the throne in 1485, and his magnificent portrait was painted. He united the Houses of Lancaster and York, by marrying Elizabeth of York………
The house changed hands from the Montmorency’s to the Giles’ at around this time. Edward Charles Giles was a favourite at court of the king and was made god-father of their first son, Arthur. Arthur’s younger brother Henry eventually became Henry 8th after Arthur died prematurely, and Henry did the customary thing and married his brother’s widow, Katherine of Aragon………
Moving on, if you look to the left hand side here in the Long gallery, this was a place for walking when the weather was wet, you will see a panel…if I push here…and here – you can see the panel actually opens to reveal a tiny room, with a cross. This was a priest hole, where Catholic priests could hide after Henry the 8th wanted to be head of the Church of England, and not be governed religiously by the Church of Rome, as he wanted to divorce his wife which the Catholic church wouldn’t allow, so Henry bought about the dissolution of the monasteries……………………
The tour took the crowd from room to room, where many paintings and tapestries were on show.
“…………Which brings us up to the middle of the last century, a stray Luftwaffe bomber returning home after an unsuccessful bombing raid on the Midlands in England strayed off course and to make his plane lighter dropped his pay-load on the south wing of the house, including St Georges’ chapel. The chapel survived virtually intact, but unfortunately the south wing didn’t. It was mostly a servants wing and store rooms, but several valuable pieces of art-work including paintings and sculptures were ruined by fire. The house was then owned by William Rupert Giles, a captain in the army, who had seen battle during the first world war too. Having contracted malaria in India he died just before the second world war ended. His wife, Elspeth had died in childbirth to her second child, a girl, Elizabeth Rose, who died of fever at six months old.
And here we have come full circle, the house is now owned by Sir Rupert William Giles, the famous actor. He has a son, called William, who will take over from his father when the time comes.”
“God let’s hope that’s no time soon!” Spike said in a loud voice. Everybody turned and looked at Spike who went red.
“I’m sorry?” The guide asked smiling
“My dad, I just meant, well you know, I don’t want him dying on me yet!”
“You mean – oh – I see the likeness now – you ARE master William, aren’t you?”
“Er, yeah, ahem, yes I am!”
“Everybody, this is William Giles, son of Sir Rupert”
Several Japanese people lined up and had their photographs taken shaking hands with him and 10 minutes later the Guide stood chatting to them. She introduced herself as Julia Patterson.
“So how long have you been doing the tours for dad?” Spike asked.
“Well, I double up, most of us office staff have to now, I do the diary here, book the functions and do the tour guide bit when we haven’t got a conference or wedding on”
If you come back to the office with me, I’ll give you a copy of this week’s diary, and a copy of the local paper, the Bugle, and you can see what’s on – we have a wedding on Saturday, but from tomorrow for three days we have a conference, a plastic manufactures AGM”
“Will the wedding actually be in the house or…” Buffy asked.
“It’ll be in the house, with a blessing in St Georges’ Chapel, the groom’s been married before see, so they couldn’t have a church wedding” Buffy nodded.
“You’ll be able to come and look at the function room before the guests arrive…here you go, this will give you some idea” She handed Buffy a glossy coloured ‘info-pack’ with an aerial photograph of the stately home and gardens on the front. Buffy couldn’t wait to see it.
“Well thank you for the tour Julia, very informative, I’d forgotten most of it!”
“You’re very welcome Master William!”
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“Oh look!” Buffy said as she sat on the bed reading about the function room. You saw a photograph of it with chairs and a white board and projector for a business conference, and then saw the same room decorated for a wedding reception, complete with white curtains, round tables laden with white china, silver cutlery, and crystal glasses, with beautiful displays of real flowers on plinths dotted about, and then the ‘top table’ where the wedding cake was on show.
“It looks beautiful!” Buffy said.
“We might be able to go in on Saturday night, I know the guy who’s getting married, It says here in the diary, wedding of Christopher Hugo-Daly, and Miss Annabel Carpenter – I went to prep-school with a Christopher Hugo-Daly, but we called him Kit”
“Kit, for Christopher…I like that!” Buffy said. She turned the page of the brochure and saw the gardens with some photographs of previous weddings, the gardens looked so beautiful in full bloom, and there was also a fountain, and a rose covered archway which the couples could stand and have photos taken.
“It looks so beautiful…and look at her dress…”
Spike smiled and agreed, and then said,
“Also, from tomorrow here in the house grounds, are various demonstrations of local crafts…there’s wood turning, lace-making, candle-making and all aspects of bee keeping, cheese making, sheep-shearing and the blacksmith will be in the stable yard showing how to shoe horses and other stuff that smiths do…also, in the Bugle it says that in Covington, that’s only three miles up the road, there’s a hog roast on Thursday night, in aid of the boy scouts - they need new camping equipment – shall we go? Raise a bit for charity?”
Buffy looked up and grinned and said,
“Sure”
“Well, I’m going to have a bath, we can have dinner, and then how about a drink at the local pub, show you off to the locals, hmm?” Spike suggested
Buffy smiled and said,
“I’d really like that!”
“Good, that’s settled then”
___________________
“What’ll you have?”
“Erm…glass of red wine I think, please” Buffy said.
“Glass of red wine and a pint of bitter please, Norman” Spike said to the barman.
The barman smiled and began to pour his pint. It wasn’t unusual for people to call him by his first name as he was wearing a name badge on his waistcoat. Just then, a huge man with a bald head and a beer-belly came into the bar and put down a crate of small ‘mixer’ drinks, tonic water, bitter lemon and ginger ales.
“There you go Norm, don’t say I never do anything for you” The guy said,
“Thanks boss…” Norm said, glancing back so as not to trip when he went to the cash register.
The guy turned to survey the pub and he saw Spike and grinned and came over to the bar to them.
“Bloody hell, look what the wind dragged in!”
They gave each other a strange handshake, clasping each others thumbs and hand rather than just the hand.
“So where have you been – I heard you’re following in the old man’s footsteps and treading the boards, now the groups kaput - is that so?”
“Well, TV actually, not theatre, although when the time’s right, I might give it a go!” Spike said with a smile. The guy’s gaze fell on Buffy and he said,
“And who’s this then – you’ve never bought anybody home before, have you?” He grinned at Buffy and addressed her and said,
“Must be somebody very special for him to bring you here love!” Buffy blushed and Spike did too a little, but he introduced them to each other.
Buffy noticed Camilla who came in with a man Buffy presumed was her boyfriend, he looked a studenty type, thick over-coat and uni scarf, they were holding hands.
“Usual Cam?” the boss asked
“Yes please Pat…and two packets of cheese and onion crisps”
She smiled and said ‘hello’ to Buffy, who smiled and answered back.
“Did you know Kit’s getting married on Saturday?” Spike asked Pat the boss.
“Who, Kit Hugo –Thingy?!” Pat asked pulling a face trying to think of the second name.
“Daly, yup that’s him” Spike said. Pat still looked confused.
“Thought he was already married” Pat said
“He was – don’t know who to, but he’s obviously divorced and marrying this Miss Annabel Carpenter is it Buf?” Spike asked. Buffy nodded and said,
“Yup, at 1.00pm on Saturday”
“Well I never…I remember now, you know who he was married to, don’t you?”
“No idea! Spike said, and then added, I haven’t seen him since prep school!”
“Tom Becket’s daughter, Tamsin”
“Who?” Spike asked none the wiser, he finished his pint and nodded to the glass and said
“Never heard of her”
“Yes you have, Tom Becket, Becket’s farms, biggest Pick-Your-Own fruit and veg farm owner this side of Somerset”
“Oh yeah, I remember him now, um, another one pet?” Spike asked Buffy
“Please, same again”
“And a red wine please Pat, and one yourself…and put one in the till for Camilla and her boyfriend, I was a bit mean to her earlier”
“Cheers, Pat said, and then he added, call it £15…”
Camilla’s boyfriend came up to the bar with their glasses and Pat told them they’d got a drink in with Spike, and they shook hands, his name was Gareth, and when he took the drinks back, Camilla held up her glass and said ‘Cheers!’
When Spike’s attention was back with Pat and Buffy, he realised, with a groan that Pat was telling her some of his misdemeanours when he was a teenager…
“…He and few others used to get the oldest looking one to come in and order 5 pints of lager and take them outside…little sods they were!” Buffy giggled and said to tell her more!
“Some of the lads used to climb over the empty bottle store, there used to be a deposit on the bottle and they used to pinch them, and bring them into the pub to get the tuppence back!”
“Ahh, now fair play, I never did that, I was too old for that!” Spike said.
Charlie, Camilla’s father came in for his usual nightcap of half a bitter and a whiskey chaser, which Spike bought for him and said to Pat, make it a double – to keep out the cold!
Charlie left after 20 minutes, refusing another drink, but with a ‘much obliged boss’ and that he’d see them the next day.
Buffy could feel the wine and the warmth getting to her and she yawned
“It’s been a long day, come on then love, let’s go home!”
They said goodnight and went back via the private lane.
“I can’t be done for drink driving it’s a private lane this is – I’m only slightly over the limit though, so don’t worry”
Buffy nodded sleepily and just couldn’t wait to get to bed.
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