Looking at the ruin of Pendragon Castle, I try to picture the scene when Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, claimed her inheritance in 1649. She had left her estranged husband and his grand houses in London and his country seat at Wilton House near Salisbury and headed north. Her aristocratic, landowning friends in the south must have been bewildered by her decision . Where is Pendragon Castle? Why go north?
Walking in the footsteps of Lady Anne, Countess of Pembroke, we left behind the General Election. That night, the SNP emerged as a new force to be reckoned with, three party leaders resigned and political careers crashed and burned. So what was the context of Lady Anne’s journey from Wilton House to Pendragon Castle?
Walking in the footsteps of Lady Anne, Countess of Pembroke, we left behind the General Election. That night, the SNP emerged as a new force to be reckoned with, three party leaders resigned and political careers crashed and burned. So what was the context of Lady Anne’s journey from Wilton House to Pendragon Castle?
Walking in the footsteps of Lady Anne, Countess of Pembroke, we left behind the General Election. That night, the SNP emerged as a new force to be reckoned with, three party leaders resigned and political careers crashed and burned. So what was the context of Lady Anne’s journey from Wilton House to Pendragon Castle?
England and Scotland were two sovereign kingdoms when Lady Anne Clifford was born in the reign of Elizabeth 1st and she was thirteen when James 1st became the first king to unite them. Philip, Earl of Pembroke, was her second husband and Wilton House near Salisbury was visited by kings. Here Mary Sidney wrote The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, completing the work begun by her brother Sir Philip Sidney. Here was the perfect place, this beautiful landscape of chalk downland and the woods surrounding Wilton House. If you could find Paradise anywhere surely it was here in the south. But the elegance and high civilisation of Wilton came crashing down in 1642 when Civil War broke out. The violence and brutality that came with it is documented by Adam Nicholson in his book The Earls of Paradise, England and the Dream of Perfection. And after my latest excursion to Pendragon and Lady Anne’s Way I reread it. I try to imagine Lady Anne’s journey north in the aftermath of Civil War- a countess with a great household and all the trappings of wealth travelling through a war-ravaged kingdom.
In his Arcadia, Sir Philip Sidney explored the idea of perfection and found it in the beauty of the landscape about Wilton and in its high civilisation during the reign of Elizabeth 1. He was right, it’s lovely. I know Wilton and its countryside from years of living in Bristol and the south west of England. Perfection isn’t always where you might expect to find it. For a naturalist, it came to me on a specially arranged visit to an army range on Salisbury Plain where the butterflies were abundant and rare. I have never experienced anything like it. I remember the excitement of the tough young men on our field-trip whom we dubbed ‘ the butterfly boys.’ They were in raptures over the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary- elitism in the butterfly kingdom.
Whilst writing my forthcoming book, some of my focus has been on this northern region of Mallerstang, Wild Boar Fell and the source of the River Eden. So I’ve spent lots of time exploring. It is wild and beautiful, a striking contrast to the countryside around Salisbury. And the name Eden resonates, that first garden, Paradise. A lost Paradise, a place to escape to. Is it possible to find Paradise in the 21st century? Where would you look for it and what would make it so remarkable?
Whilst writing my forthcoming book, some of my focus has been on this northern region of Mallerstang, Wild Boar Fell and the source of the River Eden. So I’ve spent lots of time exploring. It is wild and beautiful, a striking contrast to the countryside around Salisbury. And the name Eden resonates, that first garden, Paradise. A lost Paradise, a place to escape to. Is it possible to find Paradise in the 21st century? Where would you look for it and what would make it so remarkable?
As a reader and out exploring, I like to know more. The red button experience- if you like. My readers do too. So I want to create a connection between my new book and my website. And a book is quite different from a blog so it’s an opportunity for me to come at material in a new way, to think around it. So if you read about Lady Anne Clifford and want to know more , here it is. What I’m doing behind the scenes is preparing a new book to go into production ( it will take months). And preparing a website with a new look (not so long). I have to transfer my archive of blogs, one at a time, into the new format. The new site should be simpler and more interesting for you to navigate. I’ve written so many blogs I’ve decided to be selective about what goes in the archive. I want to keep those relevant to the new book, either in location or theme. I know friends and readers have a preference for particular topics so let me know if you have any requests.
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