A Wealthy Mans Folly

As I left the house to do some early morning calls out to Cardiff, I saw a Police Motorycyclist at the side of the road in my village with speed gun. Driving past I could see it was a colleague I used to work with many years ago, Tony Wheeler. He's now retired but working part-time. It was good to see another colleague after yesterday evenings encounter.

After finishing my call I headed into the centre of Cardiff to take a guided tour of Cardiff Castle. The last time was about 50 years ago with my grandfather!

The Castle passed through the hands of many noble families until in 1766, it passed by marriage to the Bute family. The 2nd Marquess of Bute was responsible for turning Cardiff into the world’s greatest coal exporting port. The Castle and Bute fortune passed to his son John, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, who by the 1860s was reputed to be the richest man in the world. 

From 1866 the 3rd Marquess employed the genius architect William Burges to transform the Castle lodgings. Within gothic towers he created lavish and opulent interiors, rich with murals, stained glass, marble, gilding and elaborate wood carvings. Each room has its own special theme, including Mediterranean gardens and Italian and Arabian decoration. The 3rd Marquess died when he was only 53 in 1900.

The Marquess had been to Pompei, Italy, and saw Roman style villas and mosaics and wanted one built in his castle!  As a result The Roof Garden, constructed and decorated 1873-6 in the Bute Tower - a wealthy mans folly.

My blip picture shows this open roof garden. Last time I visited this room about 50 years ago, the fountain was working and it was littered with plants! Like the Police service, it's all gone downhill!

The extra a Cardiff Icon I never get bored of photographing, The Keep.

Wide Angle Wednesday Challenge

There were 24 entries with the tag27. The optional theme was circles. The standard was very high, but my choices (just my laymans opinion, remember!) in order are;

1.   Honeycombebeach     A line of Dandelions (also as an extra)
2.   JanHH         A line of paperweight
3.   MildlyOffensive  Vertical wideangle of roundabout structure
4.   HebbleK     phone phoot of line of round hay bales
5.    JDO         A circular collage of Shakespeare theme

Honourable mention;

MPP26            A War Memorial with leaves/trees
Majoayee       Onion rings over a pizza!  
 



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