Royal Gardeners on BBC2

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Did anyone else catch this on BBC2 last night?

Finally, a way to combine GARDENING SHOWS and HISTORY PROGRAMMES in a way that was not Time Team! And was actually excellent!

Tudor gardens and country houses, could it be any more Kate Bait?

(Well, maybe by adding Mark Gardener, but that would be too much to ask, wouldn't it?)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

(If anyone else posts to this thread, ever, I will eat my wellies.)

(Maybe.)

(That would be if I owned wellies.)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I poop too much.

― Labia, Wednesday, 19 November 2003 12:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Phew, I thought I was going to have to start chewing.

The most fascinating thing about it was the great Dutch tulip finance collapse! Possibly the silliest overinflation monetary crisis in history!

(Though since it enabled the British to snatch New York, it was pretty classic.)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Durchfall!

― Labia, Wednesday, 19 November 2003 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

there's an upcoming "rosemary & thyme investigate lady di's death" special

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 13:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh no, wellies, oh no!

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Phew, that was close.

Really, it's just an excuse to show endless lugubrious shots of country houses and beautiful gardens while occasionally dropping in historical factoids. Which I am all for!

I mean, honestly, talk about a stock bubble, a tulip bulb that is worth more than £2000 IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MONEY?!?!?

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm also very happy with the recent spate of BBC2 archeology programs. Time Flyers and Landscape Mysteries, though zeroing in on the two most usual methods of Time Team investigation "let's do an aerial scan" and "send in geophys!" respectively, have been delighting me lately.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The 'Landscape Mysteries' prog. on The Chalk Man was excellent.

― Pete S, Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes! Yes! Not least because it showed other chalk figures, including some White Horses near HSA's mum's house in Wiltshire! (Though not including HSA's mum's White Horse, though.)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I've actually forgotten what the conclusion was, but i can remember loving the idea 'bout it being Cromwell.

― Pete S, Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Time Flyers last night was about the Scottish Clearances. Which of course got HSA going about the class war. When really, no, the Clearances were about THE BASTARD ENGLISH PUNNISHING THE SCOTS FOR SUPPORTING THE WRONG SIDE IN 1745, and besides, you wouldn't have Canada or New Zealand without the Clearances, so who's laughing now?

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

the conclusion was that only the uffington white horse is bronze age all and the others - inc the "long man" or whatever he's called - are 17th or 18th century as proved by scientific quartz luminescence AND asylum-seeking snails!!

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

And the Long Man was taking the piss out of Cromwell and puritanism specifically by making fun of Cromwell's club and his, ha-hem, manclub.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

So basically, ppl of that time did things that were so much cooler than we do when they wanted to protest about their government.
Why doesn't someone do something similar for Blair'n' Bush? Into a hillside? Now!

― Pete S, Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Aren't you thinking of the Cerne Abbas Giant there, Kate?

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

If it was, it was Mark S talking about said giant, I was just repeating what he said.

(It all comes back to white horses and prehistoric penises, doesn't it?)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Plus, be quiet or we will end up with a giant white POODLE scratched into the Wiltshire countryside. Or perhaps a poodle-shaped crop circle... (I should suggest this to HSA's crop circling mate, perhaps.)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I like that......Archaeologists of the future will think the poodle was a sacred amimal to us.

― Pete S, Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:24 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry yes i meant the cerne abbas giant

there was a field overlooking the M6 for a while where a farmer had sowed and ploughed some anti-major message into his crop

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, back to the gardens. Suggest me some beautiful gardens - preferably attached to royal country houses!

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Upton House. More aristo than Royal, but lovely gardens. I think it's National Trust.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Where is it? Is it transport-distance from London or is it way out in the country, like most country houses usually are?

(However, HSA's mum has said that she would like to explore more country houses and she has a car!)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Um Warwickshire? Hold on... Hmm, it's 7 miles from Banbury Station, which would make it either Oxfordshire or Northamptonshire. You can get a bus from Banbury.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PROPERTYID=214

Another good one is Lyme Park. They used it for Mr Darcy's house in Pride & Prejudice. You can climb over the wall and get onto moors and have a bit of a hike. There's also a lovely avenue of lime trees.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PROPERTYID=114

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Excellent! I think that Upton House is probably driveable from the HSA Country Seat.

I wonder if I can get into the national trust website, or if it's work filtered...

― Citizen Kate (kate), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

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