The Canal-Day Thirteen

Worcester to nowhere in particular

Overview

-We got up

-We had શિરામણ

-We stopped for lunch

-We started again

-We moored for the night

-We went for a walk-all the way to a historic house!

-We had dinner

Highlights

-Not really a highlight. I get really bad hay fever, which is why in most of the outside photos I am wearing sunglasses. They don't  help hugely, but they do.

-A HUGE historic house we visited (Hanbury House). We almost did not visit, because we were a bit late, but they let us in. The house was what would originally have been a summer house, and the people who owned it would have moved there from London. Of course, the house would have only been half the size  of the house back in London! The house had a lot of 300 year old furniture, and some newer stuff.

The house's staircase had huge scenes of the cyclops's forging the (Greek) gods' armor, and Achilles being dipped in the Styx, and him being found out after someone dressed him up in girl's clothes,  so he didn't have to go to war against the Trojans (He was killed in that battle, by Paris's brother) and Odysseus dressing up as a merchant and giving the girls of the place Achilles was hidden in pretty jewelry and weapons. Achilles chose the weapons, was taken to war, killed Paris and was killed, blah blah blah. Then there was the conquerors sharing out the spoils after sacking Troy.

There was also a room were someone shot themselves. The man of the house, actually. Apparently the people who owned the place were the nicest landlords.  They taught all the children-they even rebuilt the school! (How this is nice, I have no idea) They took the boys and girls up to the manor house and gave them extra lessons. If they showed any promise, they would tell their friends, and their friends would hire them. They hired nurses, and, when the agricultural depression came, the kept the people on the land by lowering the rent, tiny bit by tiny bit.  This meant when the depression was over, the soil was good and they did not have to restart from square one. Smart. There was also a huuuge garden, with an orchard, an orangery and a place for growing mushrooms. There were hens, and dad said when we get back, there is a high chance of getting hens ourselves! Jack was taken by box hedges, and he wants them at home. He has been talking about them not stop. Mum saw nice flowers that she wants. So, I have the hens, Jack has the hedge, Mum has the flowers, and Dad... He can just help us get it all sorted. So, I think it was a very good visit all round!