A Quintessentially English Afternoon at Castle Ashby

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If you like Downton Abbey, then you'll be at home at Castle Ashby. It's a large country house, garden and park in Northamptonshire that conjures up images of England going back hundreds of years. It's quintessentially English, at least from an upper class perspective.

Setting the scene in the car park was a vintage open top Rolls Royce. I don't know who it belonged to, but it certainly set the scene.

The main house is privately owned, so the riff-raff are kept away, but the main points of interest are outside anyway. What I found most fascinating was the Arboretum, with it's trees over 150 years old. It's amazing to walk around and explore such a diverse abundance of trees and shrubbery.

There's also an 'Orangery', dating back to around 1860-something this greenhouse on steroids is home to a fascinating collection of tropical plant, with a fish pond pull of carp. What a luxury for whoever once had this as there personal chill-out space!

Surrounding the Orangery is some fantastic 'Italian Gardens', with expertly sculpted and cultivated trees and bushes, after the wilderness of the arboretum this was a interesting contrast in how to manage nature.

For the kids there's also a little zoo. I use the word zoo lightly. They had meerkats, plus some pigs, chickens, and a couple of tortoise, probably almost as old as the trees. The pigs were cool though, in a rare breed kind of way.

And then there was the old chapel, a traditional english church for the use of the lord of the manor, plus his workers I guess. I relaxing space whatever your religious inclinations. There was a grave of a poor woman who was killed under suspicion of witchcraft, so not so relaxing for her I guess.

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