The long driveway which leads to Glamis Castle is flanked by fields of cattle, if you have to be a cow this is one of the best places to be one I think. Good grass, lovely trees to hide from the sun, when we get it, not a bad life – for a while anyway.
This fountain is just beyond the field of cows and if you’re in the castle you would be looking out on to it from the front windows, unfortunately it wasn’t up and running, which is a pity because I love fountains and for some reason there aren’t enough of them in Britain. Nice trees though, the whole area is well planted tree wise. As you can see from the blue rope there was some sort of festival going on at Glamis and they were busy preparing the grounds for it.
Going beyond the castle you come to this dinky wee bridge which I just had to have a look at, bridges being something else I’m keen on. We never did find out what was over the bridge as you can see you aren’t meant to go over it. There were a few cars coming over it in the other direction, belonging to the Strathmore family I suppose.
These two statues are of Stuart kings. This one is James VI of Scotland – he was Mary, Queen of Scots’ son and when Elizabeth I of England died with no heir, he was next in line for the English throne. He’s known as James I in England and he is probably best known nowadays as the man who had the bible translated into English – hence it being known as the King James bible.
This one is King Charles I (Stuart)
He was a bit ‘thrawn’ as we say and his determination to hold on to all of his power led to him having his head chopped off which more or less ended the English Civil War (which actually spread all over Britain.) It was about fifteen years later the Restoration brought his son, Charles II, back as king.
Captain Hook from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is traditionally modelled on Charles I.
Reading about all these James and Henry’s and Charles and Mary’s (oh my head is spinning!) in Mary Queen of Scots!
Peggy Ann,
I was just thinking that it might be very confusing for you. At least most Brits have a vague idea of the history and the people it concerns. The Bess of Hardwick book I’ve been reading is the same except it has a lot of Elizabeths and Williams, it’s very interesting though.
I love fountains and bridges (small ones, unless I’m just looking at them), too. That’s a lovely little stone one tucked under the trees.
An elderly woman who was a family friend had an overgrown garden with a small fountain in it. There was a T-shaped iron stick that had to be pushed to make it go. Great fun for a child, my own secret garden.
Joan,
I suppose that was a sort of stirrup pump, it sounds like great fun, what a feeling of power that would be, to be in control of the water.
That last photo certainly looks like Cyril Richard’s version of Hook/Darling. (The 60s version of Peter Pan being the only one worth remembering IMHO…)
I’m trying to remember if we’ve been to Glamis yet – we saw so many castles in the UK they started to run together after a while. Not unlike cathedrals in Italy!
Pearl,
Peter Pan is a very popular pantomime production all over Britain at Christmas and Hook is always dressed like Charles I. Of course Hook was also supposed to have been an Old Etonian, just like most of the members of our government at the moment. No wonder I have the urge to ‘hiss’ at them all whenever I see them!
I know what you mean, I’ve seen so may stately homes this ‘summer’ I have to stop and think what was where, when!