High Class Dining

Having waited in for the Electricity Man to install a new Smart Meter, his (and my) time proved wasted as the meter needs a mobile signal - mine is virtually non-existent as I live at the bottom of 2 hills surrounded by trees!  He was highly apologetic, and as he wasn't very late I still had time to head out for the day.

I hadn't been to Basilton Park near Reading for a few years and the weather app suggested it would be dry until evening (it lied!).  The house interior was interesting with wonderful room settings - even more so when you realise that the fittings were collected and dressed in the 1950's by the wife of the last owner.

The dining room was particularly splendid, with its magnificent flower arrangements.  You have to look really hard to see that they are artificial, and were "left behind" by the film company after filming Downton Abbey,  where Basilton House was used as the set of Grantham House, the Crawley family’s London residence.

The extra shows one of studies made by Sutherland for the Altar Tapestry of Christ in Coventry Cathedral, plus some very unseasonal fungi I found in the grounds.