Yesterday
we went to Doddington Hall for a pre-Christmas outing. Doddington is near
Lincoln, and is a Smythson house. For many years we lived in Wollaton, and
Wollaton Hall is very famous and
elaborate Smythson house, although quite spoiled internally. Hardwick hall,
just up the A1 is Smythson, and a wonderful survival, with most of the original
furnishings. Smythson is buried in St Leonard’s, Wollaton, and his monument actually
calls him “architect”, which must be a very early usage of the term, if not the
first.
 |
| Doddington, front, with sculpture by Andrew Smith, last summer |
 |
| Doddington, rear, with frost |
Doddington
is smaller and simpler than Hardwick or Wollaton, but it is lovely. We went in
the summer for the biennial sculpture exhibition; it must have been at least
twenty years since we last visited, and the next generation of the family have
succeeded. The gardens are improved and the produce of the enormous kitchen
gardens are sold in a shop, along with high quality meats, cheeses, pies,
cakes, bread etc. It’s jolly good. And there’s an excellent café and
restaurant.
So this
weekend we have friends staying, and saw that Doddington is open for a brief
period in winter, with the house decorated for Christmas. So we booked the
restaurant for lunch and went off.
It was a
cold and frosty morning, (though way past three o’ clock) so we didn’t spend as
much time in the gardens as they deserve, although we did make sure to do the
turf maze. Can’t resist a maze or a labyrinth.
 |
| Trying the maze |
 |
| At the centre |
The house
decorations were just gorgeous, and perfectly in keeping. There were huge
displays of dried hydrangea heads, holly, ivy and white stalks and seed heads.
There were ivy leaves made from cut up sheet music, origami flowers, and paper
bells. A group of wicker work angels, whom we had seen in the gardens during
the sculpture exhibition, were suspended from the ceiling. One room, which
contains a wonderful decorated Egyptian tent, brought back to the house by a
previous owner, had paper silhouettes of the three kings. A choir sang carols
in the main hall.
 |
| Choir in the hall |
But the
piece de resistance was the long gallery at the top of the house. You opened
the door into near darkness, and walked into a softly lit forest (and I mean forest – there were countless trees).
The pine smell, and the cold and the subtle lighting, made it feel just like
going in to Narnia. There were wickerwork angels here, too, standing so their
shadows were cast on the ceiling. You followed the meandering path through the
forest, and reached a large tree, decorated with white lights and “icicles”. It
was brilliant.
 |
| The forest, in the gallery |
Then we had
an excellent lunch, with crackers and mince pies.
The best
thing about the decorations was the imagination and work that had gone into
them, not expensive or showy ingredients.
Last
weekend we went to see friends and family in the north east, which was
delightful in itself, and as a bonus we went to a short, informal carol concert
in Durham Cathedral. The choir wasn’t singing, unfortunately, but it was
lovely. After the service we visited the Venerable Bede, and St Cuthbert. Durham
may well be my favourite cathedral in the whole world.
I do like singing
carols, and know nearly all the words of nearly all the carols, because for
about twelve years the children and I, and any friends we could persuade, sang
carols on a Saturday before Christmas outside the shops in Wollaton, just by
the pedestrian crossing and outside the post office, and collected for Save the
Children. We used to get about £100, so it was very well worthwhile, although
sometimes we were frozen by the end.
On the way
back to Nottingham we stopped off at a farm shop and got a beautiful small
whole Coverdale cheese, to eat with the Christmas cake. Once back, we went out
to Long Clawson and bought the Christmas half Stilton. So now I feel madly
Christmassy, and almost organised.
