Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful festive season, and a lovely and relaxing time.
My family and I spent the end of 2017 with a large group of friends in a village near York, and we had the chance to visit that beautiful city to my heart’s content.
York is a magical place, and even more so at Christmas.
My family and I spent the end of 2017 with a large group of friends in a village near York, and we had the chance to visit that beautiful city to my heart’s content.
York is a magical place, and even more so at Christmas.
(Photos © Joana Starnes)
Enclosed within the medieval walls, still largely intact, you can find layer upon layer of history, 2000 years of it and more, with gems to discover at every corner.
York Minster awes the visitor with its grandeur, and no less with the secrets it had revealed over the centuries, of times gone by, when a Roman fortress that had stood on its site, later replaced by a Norman cathedral, and then by more and more grandiose structures.
York Minster awes the visitor with its grandeur, and no less with the secrets it had revealed over the centuries, of times gone by, when a Roman fortress that had stood on its site, later replaced by a Norman cathedral, and then by more and more grandiose structures.
Around the corner is the house where Guy Fawkes was born; also, the famous Shambles that, among other things, have been the inspiration for Diagon Alley...
... and dozens of old ale-houses and coaching inns that have welcomed the weary traveller for over 300 years. Some of those weary travellers reputedly never left, and are to this very day haunting some of those ale-houses – or so the story goes.
The Treasurer’s House, a beautiful National Trust house near York Minster was unfortunately closed at that time of year...
...but the absolute gem that is Fairfax House was open, and I spent hours absorbing the atmosphere of a Georgian Christmas in one of the finest townhouses in England.
Just like Basildon Park (which, incidentally, was built by the same architect, John Carr of York) Fairfax House has seen years of great affluence followed by sad neglect and unsympathetic uses, yet the stories of both houses have happy endings.
After decades of being used as a gentlemen’s club, a dance hall and an adjunct to a 1000-seat cinema (with part of the house demolished and the main bedrooms converted into toilets) an impressive conservation project has brought it back to its original glory.
Photography is not allowed, but the Fairfax House website will give you tantalising glimpses of the exquisite place.
I think it looks at its best at Christmas, when garlands of greenery and flowers adorn the columns, the bannisters, the portraits and mantelpieces, and the dining room is a delight.
The table is laid for the dessert course, with a large temple as the centrepiece, surrounded by a ‘parterre’ made of sugar paste, as well as by bowlfuls of sweetmeats and wonderfully realistic marzipan fruits, while an impressive Twelfth Night cake sits proudly on the dresser along with an array of drinks, and elaborate flower arrangements.
The breakfast table, set in the library, is no less impressive, with its array of ‘shred pies’, rolls, jam, tea, coffee, a vast Yorkshire Pie that seems to have come straight from the hands of Hannah Glasse, and a wheel of cheese that fills the air with its aroma because, as most of the food on display, it’s real, not just artfully decorated plaster and silicone. Again, I so wished I could take a photo (or hundreds) but you can get a very good idea here of what the Yorkshire Pie looked like.
I could have spent days in Fairfax House and still find intriguing and beautiful little details I missed, and I could have also spent days in the amazing treasure-chest that was this gorgeous bookshop on Minster Street, with several storeys full of hundreds of books and old prints.
After decades of being used as a gentlemen’s club, a dance hall and an adjunct to a 1000-seat cinema (with part of the house demolished and the main bedrooms converted into toilets) an impressive conservation project has brought it back to its original glory.
Photography is not allowed, but the Fairfax House website will give you tantalising glimpses of the exquisite place.
I think it looks at its best at Christmas, when garlands of greenery and flowers adorn the columns, the bannisters, the portraits and mantelpieces, and the dining room is a delight.
The table is laid for the dessert course, with a large temple as the centrepiece, surrounded by a ‘parterre’ made of sugar paste, as well as by bowlfuls of sweetmeats and wonderfully realistic marzipan fruits, while an impressive Twelfth Night cake sits proudly on the dresser along with an array of drinks, and elaborate flower arrangements.
The breakfast table, set in the library, is no less impressive, with its array of ‘shred pies’, rolls, jam, tea, coffee, a vast Yorkshire Pie that seems to have come straight from the hands of Hannah Glasse, and a wheel of cheese that fills the air with its aroma because, as most of the food on display, it’s real, not just artfully decorated plaster and silicone. Again, I so wished I could take a photo (or hundreds) but you can get a very good idea here of what the Yorkshire Pie looked like.
I could have spent days in Fairfax House and still find intriguing and beautiful little details I missed, and I could have also spent days in the amazing treasure-chest that was this gorgeous bookshop on Minster Street, with several storeys full of hundreds of books and old prints.
A week would not have been enough to absorb the beauty of Castle Howard, once the home of the eldest daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.
What can be more inspiring for Regency and JAFF writers than the great country houses where Mr and Mrs Darcy might have stayed in the delightful season of their courtship, or as blissfully happy newlyweds?
As always, I find them everywhere I go, and I love to sit and scribble in some quiet corner and imagine them strolling along secluded paths or seeking refuge in some walled garden to steal a kiss or two.
As always, I find them everywhere I go, and I love to sit and scribble in some quiet corner and imagine them strolling along secluded paths or seeking refuge in some walled garden to steal a kiss or two.
The snow-covered grounds of Castle Howard were lovely even on a dreary and overcast day, but they must be an absolute delight in the spring and summer.
It’s been a very long time since my last trip to Yorkshire - over twenty years, ever since my own season of courtship' 😉- but something tells me I’ll persuade my family to return very soon!
It’s been a very long time since my last trip to Yorkshire - over twenty years, ever since my own season of courtship' 😉- but something tells me I’ll persuade my family to return very soon!
Happy New Year and happy trails in 2018!
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