Monday 3 June

We had breakfast at Betty’s Tearooms in Harlow Carr gardens https://www. visitharrogate.co.uk/things-to-do/rhs-garden-harlow-carr-p1203151 – all the same delicious-looking food but served there in a modern setting rather than the old traditional surroundings that we saw yesterday.    Liz and Gary were on their way to a funeral in Leeds so Liz’s favourite rosti at Betty’s set her up for that.    The tables look over a terrace onto pretty gardens, they have a shop selling all their baked and perfectly-iced goodies, and the complex is also home to a gardeners’ training centre opened recently by Alan Titchmarsh. 

We were dropped off at Harewood House https://harewood.org/ around 10.30 so had time to wander around the outside of the house and were first in the door at 11.  The state rooms are open on the first floor, kitchens down below, and there are private rooms on the upper floor for the family, offices etc.    Build started in 1759, lots of Robert Adam designs especially the ceilings, lots of Chippendale furniture, Capability Brown designed the huge gardens.   There is a large art collection, including a 15C Bellini, much of it due to an unexpected inheritance left to one of the earls and he decided to spend it that way.   Princess Mary, a daughter of King George V and aunt of Queen Elizabeth, married the 5^th Earl of Harewood and did quite a lot of updating during her time at the house.   It had been used as a hospital in both World Wars, and was converted to a trust by the family and is now run very much as a business.  

The rooms are beautiful and most have silk wall coverings and beautifully painted ceilings.   There was a modern art exhibition going on with exhibits supposedly fitting in with the traditional décor but…….much of it was beyond me.   There was one striking dress though, in what was Princess Mary’s dressing room and the blue fabric matched the lapis lazuli fireplace.   She also had a very polished-up wooden box-shaped toilet, and a fancy marble bathroom.   My favourite room was the State Bedroom which had been refurbished with gorgeous green silk walls and bed hangings, and the exhibition piece in that room was a huge swathe of silk at the end of the bed – look closely and it had aeroplanes, animals, birds, hunting…. .all sorts of things.

Downstairs the kitchens are a rabbit warren of rooms including a gardeners’ vegetable washroom, a pastry coolroom, and the main kitchen had an enormous range installed by Princess Mary in 1935.  Its full of highly polished copper kitchenware which was apparently almost black when it was taken out of storage, imagine polishing that.    And in the hallways we could open cupboard doors to see shelves full of formal glassware, china etc.     Of course there were bells connected to each room, and the stone steps were worn down so you could practically see and hear all the thousands of feet which had walked up and down day after day.

We had a walk around the grounds; the house is on a rise and overlooks formal gardens, a small lake and farmland which was in the thick of hay-baling today.   On the lakeside there’s a little ferry that goes across to a small island, there’s a small zoo, a collection of exotic birds, great playground, and the old stables have been converted to an indoor/outdoor café and shop.   They have a breeding programme for red kite birds and we could see them flying and swooping above Liz and Gary’s place – they have a fairly wide range it seems.

We were picked up around 2.30 and after getting changed took Monty the dog for a good walk around Knaresborough castle.  Bits of the original wall still stand, there’s an open green area, bowling greens, and the old keep dates to about 1400, and overlooks a viaduct crossing the river and a very pretty village with small boats tied up.   We walked down steps to river level, all happy to blow the cobwebs away.

After dinner we walked to the village pub for a quiz evening, joined by Liz and Gary’s neighbours.  I had hit the wall by then, lack of sleep on the flights over caught up and Pete reckons I was writing the answers with my eyes practically closed.    I was well and truly ready for bed.  And we didn’t win the quiz, but it was a good evening.