Friday 26 June 2020

Busting out (very tentatively) from lockdown

National Trust property The Vyne, not far from Basingstoke


Greetings, readers.

It's been a long time since I posted, but with good reason - I haven't been anywhere, or done anything, since mid March!

I'm not going to ramble on about the pandemic. Suffice to say Kevin and I are well, we have both been working from home full time since lockdown began, and it's been a long haul. Of course we are fortunate enough to live in a gloriously beautiful place, with plenty of woodland, fields and country lanes literally at our doorstep. Through all these weeks I have thought about families stuck in flats in London - adults, children, pets all crammed in together, twenty-four-seven. We really have little to complain about.

Nonetheless, for one such as I who lives to travel and explore, not being able to move beyond the environs of home for several months has been not been easy. 

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, lockdown conditions were relaxed to allow parks and some other limited recreational spaces to reopen under strict conditions. So it was that I stayed up way past my bedtime one Thursday night, to queue online for tickets to visit National Trust property The Vyne, just outside the Hampshire village of Sherborne St John. It's about a 45-minute drive from home. 

None of the National Trust's houses are open - just the grounds, and numbers are strictly limited. You need to book a timed entry. Tickets are released at midnight on a Thursday, and thus a wearying 40 minutes later I could at last extinguish my bedside lamp, having secured tickets for the following Saturday.



The Wey Brook, a tributary of the River Loddon (itself a tributary of The Thames)


The southern facade of the house


The eastern facade of the house.
They are behind on some of the gardening, with many NT staff having been furloughed 



Side view of The Brewhouse, which now houses the tea room
(which of course remains closed at this time)



The Summer House


We'd visited The Vyne once back in 2008, but it was on a dark winter's night, when a whisky tasting evening was being held. I was the designated driver for Kevin and a couple of friends, and this property is buried deep in countryside so we arrived and departed without glimpsing anything but the illuminated main entrance of the house. Thus it was a pleasure to finally see the beautiful grounds, even though the house was not open due to COVID-19 restrictions.

This is a property with many very fine trees, including an incredible 600-year old oak. I was really struck by the beauty of the park itself and the surrounding woodlands. Many National Trust properties have parkland designed by Capability Brown, whose work I admire, but there was something particularly pleasing about the less structured, wilder form of The Vyne's grounds. I could imagine one of my literary heroines, Elizabeth Bennet, spending hours exploring the landscape in her empire line gown... because in fact she may well have done (more on that later).

This twisted, enormous oak is at least 600 years old

Pine cones on a cedar tree


Gigantic fungi, the size of dinner plates!

In addition to the woods and parkland, there are fairly informal gardens flanking one side of the house (herbaceous borders), as well as a lovely and extensive walled garden bursting at the seams with flowers, fruit and vegetables. Everything was either at its peak, or perhaps just past its peak, and I'm glad we visited when we did - we've just had several days of temperatures in excess of 30ºC, and I imagine the gardens are looking a little tired and depleted by now.

Vibrant plantings in the herbaceous border


Passionfruit vine in the walled garden



Passion flower


Poppies in bloom in the walled garden


In amongst the botanical loveliness was this grotesque little number.
Yes, that's a lemon, masquerading as a claw. 
The sort of thing you might find in a fairytale with an evil witch and an enchanted forest

I am looking forward to exploring the house when it eventually reopens, but from the exterior it's quite a strange structure. It was originally a moated Tudor house (built circa 1500), and over the centuries it's been extended and reshaped, towers added... the result is a building that - to my eyes - doesn't represent any defined architectural style. Despite it being happily situated on a lake, there's something not quite right. 

The very grand portico at the entrance facing the lake


Entablature above the pediment


Oh, how I love a Corinthian capital!



Entrance to The Brewhouse

For the first time in many years, and with no other option for refreshment given the current restrictions, we had brought our own picnic hamper with us. After completing a full circuit of the property, we selected an isolated spot under the shade of a tree and enjoyed a very relaxing couple of hours - grazing on  dolmadi, falafel, hummus, artichokes and flatbread, sipping on Italian rosé, browsing magazines, staring up at the sky and generally just chilling.

All set up for a relaxing day out in the country


The view from our picnic rug

Rather than head straight home, as we often do, we decided to spend a few minutes exploring the nearest village - Sherborne St John - through which we'd passed on the way to The Vyne. There's not much to it, but there are some very cute thatched cottages, and a pretty little church. 


St Andrew's church, Sherborne St John


The lychgate at the entrance to St Andrew's churchyard



Thatched cottage in the village of Sherborne St John, with The Swan pub behind (yes, closed)

Eventually we set off in the direction of home, however a dud instruction on our sat-nav required us to pull over and consult Google Maps to get our bearings. As I did, my eye landed upon the word 'Steventon.'

*ding-ding!

Yes, folks - that's the sound that went off in my head as I recalled that Steventon is perhaps the only Jane Austen related place that I have somehow never got around to visiting. A mere ten minutes' drive from where we had pulled over, there was no question of us letting this opportunity go. 

Steventon is where Jane was born and lived for the first 25 years of her life, and where her father was was rector of the parish for nearly 30 years, before handing over the living to his son James. Unfortunately the parsonage, where the family resided, is long gone, but thankfully the church was open.

Steventon is just a dot on the map, and the church sits in splendid isolation in the middle of farmland and woods, except for Steventon Manor across the road. It must have been a bit of a wrench to leave the beautiful Hampshire countryside for the crowded metropolis of Bath. 

St Nicholas Church, Steventon




The rather lovely interior of St Nicholas Church in Steventon






As always, the delight of walking in Jane's actual footsteps was a highlight of the day. I was able to envisage a congregation of bonneted and regency costumed worshippers making their way into the church and taking their places in pews, according to the strict social hierarchy of the time. 

It was in Steventon that Jane began writing Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. These novels were not completed or published until many years later, but the storylines were formed in this tiny hamlet. 

And yes, Jane and her sister Cassandra attended dances at  The Vyne as young ladies. Another impetus for me returning to see the interior of the house, when it eventually reopens.

This visit to Steventon, albeit by accident, has now closed the loop on my informal pilgrimage to all of the significant locations of Jane's life.

The idyllic country road leading to St Nicholas Church from Steventon Village

I couldn't have asked for a nicer day to end my enforced period of isolation. Here's hoping there will be more very soon.

Until next time,
- Maree  xo