Beningbrough Hall

First on the list was Beningbrough Hall, just north of York. This house was built in the early 18th Century, and contains some excellent examples of local woodcarving, a skill for which York was justly famous in that period.

Beningbrough Daffodils

Photography is not permitted within the house unfortunately.

Additionally to the house, there is a lovely spring garden, which at this time of year is full of various breeds of daffodils, and is a real haven of peace and tranquility. The house itself looks over wide open grounds, and takes advantage of the flatness of the surrounding area to create grand vistas over the fields.

Day two of the trip consisted of an excursion to Whitby (where sadly the Abbey was not open), and a walk up to the delightful, if somewhat unusual church on the cliff top. This church has grown over the years in a rather random fashion, and contains some very unusual box pews (in which half the seats face away from the front) and quite a few areas where there is no possibility of seeing the altar.

Triple-deck pulpit

It has two particular aspects which stood out to me – 1) the triple-deck pulpit, which still has attached ear-trumpets for the wife of a past vicar; and 2) the wonderful coal-burning stove which is still the only mechanism of heating the nave of the church.

On the return to York from Whitby, we passed through Nunnington Hall, a much smaller house than Beningbrough, but which was also particularly interesting – over time, the main axis of the house had changed by 90 degrees as extensions were built and rooms were reassigned. Some of the panelling and artefacts date back to the 16th century, although much of the house is in the condition that it was during ownership by the Fife family in the first half of the twentieth century.

Nunnington Hall Dining Room

Day three and our trip further North (Cumbria) commenced. Having stopped at the llama Karma café (see also my Scottish trip blogpost), for a quick bacon sandwich and cup of tea, it was to our next National Trust property, Acorn Bank mill and gardens. This house is not yet open for viewing, although the intention is to open it up soon, but there are lovely gardens, and a very interesting partially restored watermill. The gardens are particularly known for their collection of several hundred edible and medicinal herbs.

Aira Force

Next up on our journey was an old child-hood destination of Aira Force (National Trust car-park here!), and the classic short circular walk up the side of the falls, around to the next village, and back down the other side. We were blessed by a magical improvement in the weather in the Ullswater environs, and some excellent views down over that lake. A drive over an increasing misty Kirkstone Pass took us down the “Struggle” to Ambleside, and an excellent pub lunch, then over the hills towards Thirlmere and our Inn.

The King’s Head coaching inn (www.lakedistrictinns.co.uk), was our choice of location. Reasonable rates (c. £60 per room per night for B&B in winter), quirky rooms (ours had a four poster and Victoria bath), odd artefacts (the odd miniature suit of armour sort of thing), and a lovely location between the slopes of Helvellyn and the waters of Thirlmere made for a lovely two night stay. Only drawback is the noise from the road (single glazing), but that wasn’t too much of a problem in March (traffic pretty much stops after about 8pm!). There’s also a decent bar and excellent resident’s restaurant, with good quality food such as pheasant and other local produce. All very excellent.

Surprise view

Day Four and it was “walk day”, obviously facilitated by parking in another National Trust car park, Our route took us from the banks of Derwent water, up past the famous Ashness Bridge (postcard territory), beyond “surprise view” (pictured), and up to Watendlath, a very remote hamlet and tarn, which is allegedly Prince Charles’ favourite spot. A gentle walk over the watershed and down into Borrowdale took us to the half-way point of our expedition. The descent took us past the Bowder stone (a large rock deposited on what looks like a precarious knife-edge) by the action of glaciers in the last ice-age. No time to linger though, onwards toward Grange and the foot of Derwentwater, and finally back to the car. 8.5miles, 4hours, and generally a lovely day. The day still had enough time for us to venture to Castlerigg stone circle, but the combination of a bitter wind and our tiredness reduced that visit to long enough to take one photograph, before we went to find a nice dinner. For this we went to the location of my first legal drink, and provider of excellent, succulent sizzling steaks, the White Lion Inn, Patterdale. And then for an early night!

Hardknott Roman Fort

Day Five did not dawn as appealingly as the previous days, but nevermind! We set off in the car to another National Trust site – Hardknott Roman Fort. This is over the somewhat ridiculous Hardknott pass road, which is not in the best of condition, and is insanely steep – the road surface is buckled at the bottom of each of the steep sections, owing to years of abuse with the force of vehicles trying to get up, which has a rather negative effect on grip on these key sections of the road. The fort itself, known as Mediobogdum, is in a very remote, hilly location, which I’m sure has a great aspect on a sunny day, but on this most normal of Cumbrian days, in the gale and the drizzle, seemed like a very depressing place to have been posted, especially since most of those posted here allegedly came from the Dalmatian Coast of what is now Croatia. An afternoon snack at Coniston, and it was then time to head to our next beautiful country house destination.

Johnby Hall

Johnby Hall is not a National Trust property, but is the delightful home (and now B&B) of two of our friends and their family. With unique accommodation, and breakfast served in the Great Hall, it makes an excellent place for a stopover. Our room was in the “modern” 17th century wing of the house!

Hardwick Hall

Our return home, via an excellent performance of Brahms’ Requiem in York Minster, given by York Music Society, was rounded off by an excellent tour of Hardwick Hall (you guessed it – National Trust), just off the M1 in Derbyshire. It is particularly noteworthy for the enormous collection of tapestries, which literally carpet the walls. It is also incredibly grand (as befits a home owned and used by the Countess of Shrewsbury). Well worth a visit and a tour, but the carpark was a total quagmire (despite the dry spell in March!).

Another day, another Quasimodal gig. This one, however, was a little different. For a start it took place on my birthday (woohoo!), and it wasn’t late in the evening in a dark basement – it was at 6pm in a cafe! Piedescalso is a very bizarre little café on Thomas Street in Dublin. It’s long and thin, and the walls serve as an art gallery. The emphasis is on relaxation and smiles. Simon and Alon and their unplugged guitars fit the chilled out atmosphere perfectly, and they played on and off for nearly 2 hours, mixing up their usual programme of their own songs with a few other bits and pieces. Hearing the music of Dowland and Ravenscroft accompanied by guitars in a gig setting was unusual, but it fit their programme perfectly.

Their quasimodal style was adapted to form a pastiche of Radiohead (who had played in Dublin the night before the gig), using some translated Hebrew text (of all things). Worked a treat. Whilst it was not quite like being at Croke Park or Malahide Castle, it made those of us who had missed out on Radiohead feel a little better about ourselves!

Following the gig, I joined the musicians to attend another gig at the Button Factory. A slightly random (but in places perfectly good) German electronic group called Notwist were playing, but more importantly, Simon’s housemate Sinead’s band, Half Set, were playing before them, and we went along to support. Thank you to Simon for the ticket as part of my birthday present!!

The programme was of piano trios, played by the Capuçon brothers (from Chambery, France) on violin and ‘cello, and the American born Nicholas Anderich on piano.

The concert was set in the massive conservatory of the house, on a wonderful summer’s evening – picnics in the grounds first – and opened with a trio by Franz Josef Haydn. Beautifully and passionately played, but really only a warm-up for the more meaty music of Johannes Brahms (trio in c minor), which came later. Brahms wrote this particular trio whilst at his summer retreat in Thun, Switzerland, and the music brings across the impressiveness of that location.

The second half of the concert consisted solely of Dmitri Shostakovich’s outstanding piano trio in e minor, written following the death of his closest friend Ivan Sollertinsky. The beauty of the work, charting the passage from life into death was truly exceptionally moving. The vigour and virtuosity of the performance from all three musicians could only add to the overall effect.

There were plenty of clergy at the service to welcome the new ordinands into their role as Deacons of the Church of Ireland, and the service was presided over by the Archbishop of Dublin. The Bishop of Cork was also present as the guest of one of the ordinands.

As well as the usual liturgical music, there was a piece of music for three clarinets (played in turn by the player) composed by one of the ordinands. The three-fold nature of the piece was representative of the Trinity and other aspects of Christian doctrine.

Next week we have another ordination – this time of Priests. Perhaps one of the hymns (there were FIVE in this service) could be cut, so we have a chance of getting away before night falls!

During the service the choir sang music that he had chosen for the occasion in conjunction with the Director of Music. This included Bruckner’s Locus iste, Leighton’s Collegium Magdalenae Oxoniense canticles, and Purcell’s O God, thou art my God.

During the Installation, the new Dean was given his medallion of office, and handed the silver verge to the Dean’s Verger, and was led to his stall where he is meant to sit in “quiet contemplation”. This will be difficult since it’s directly behind me in the choirstalls, and i’m rarely quiet!

Obviously at such a large event there were an huge number of visiting dignitaries, from the Church of Ireland Bishops, to representatives of the other Christian Churches (including an orthodox priest in full regalia). Both the C of I and the Roman Catholic Archbishops of Dublin were present, and the (excellent) sermon was given by the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rt Revd M. Burrows, who spoke excellently on what it means to be Dean. A future Archbishop of Dublin in the pulpit perhaps?

Rather disappointingly the service was followed by a reception only involving some nibbles and tea and coffee – on such a grand occasion a glass of wine might surely have been appropriate.

]]> http://paulmthomas.com/2008/05/30/installation-and-institution/feed/ 0 paulmthomas http://paulmthomas.com/2008/05/22/quasimodal-2/ http://paulmthomas.com/2008/05/22/quasimodal-2/#comments Thu, 22 May 2008 09:42:07 +0000 paulmthomas http://paulmthomas.wordpress.com/?p=35 ]]> Simon and Alon played an excellent gig in Shine in Dublin last night. Their 35 minute slot was the last of three, and by the time we’d waited for the football (being shown downstairs) to end and the music to start it was already getting quite well on in the evening, and Quasimodal finally started playing at about 23.40.

Their music draws a large influence from the modal harmonies of the music of Restoration England, and in mood generally ranges from sad, through somber and into melancholy. The poetry set is often the work of Simon’s sister, Catherine MacHale, mainly in English, but there was also an Irish text. The set also included two songs in Hebrew.

The texts and music are not all gloomy, however. Or particular note was an excellent upbeat setting of a Shakespearean sonnet, including a recorder solo in the style of the time!

All in all an excellent evening’s entertainment. I look forward to hearing more from Quasimodal.