Althorp and Tyringham

     My aunt and uncle took me to see Althorp, which is owned by Princess Diana's brother and is where she grew up. As far as stately homes go, this one isn't very impressive on the outside, but the inside was beautiful! There was also a very interesting display about the life of Diana, and a very nice collection of her dresses. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of them, but it was very fun to see the change in fashion throughout her life.

      There's a very nice monument to Diana on an island in a pond, where she is supposedly buried. Can you keep a secret? Good, because I don't want to get in trouble for telling you this. According to the locals she is actually buried in the Spencer family church. I don't know if that's actually true, but when we visited the church a large portion of it was inaccessible to the public, so it could be possible. However, I didn't get to see it myself, so it could very well just be a local rumor.

     We then went back to Tyringham and I was kindly given a little tour of the lower part of the manor house. I've been around the whole house a couple of years ago, but I really didn't remember very much of it--so the tour was a great memory refresher!

  The inside is lovely, but my favorite bits are the fantastic sculptures throughout the grounds--and the grounds of course!

    There are lots of sculptures of Atlas which are incredible! The one above is my favorite.

   Like most estates, Tyringham has a lot of classical, Greek-looking architecture and little "temples". One of the "temples" is being refurbished right now, but is sooo pretty. It has been dubbed "the temple of music" and is so magical! I was humming as I went in and was absolutely stunned by the acoustics--wow, best place to sing ever! The shape of the building is such that sounds go all lovely and echoey, but are still clear--so it gives a very unearthly, haunting affect. 

  I then was sent on a blackberry-picking adventure through a smoky woods...

....only to find about 5 blackberries--lame! But the walk there was exciting, I kept expecting a Little Red Riding Hood sort of thing to happen.