Compton Verney

I read a really glowing review in my newspaper this morning of an exhibition of automata, The Marvellous Mechanical Museum, which is on display at Compton Verney. Of course, I wanted to see it and I also knew that W would enjoy not only the exhibition but the rest of the gallery, having already been round during a Blipmeet last year. So off we went, and we weren't disappointed.

There were some wonderful pieces on display and many that you could operate yourself either manually or by pressing a button. But the star of the show was "A Quiet Afternoon In Cloud Cuckoo Land", a full room-size exhibit of a train built by Rowland Emmett, cartoonist and designer of the inventions made by Caractacus Potts in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. Sadly, no photography was allowed otherwise that would definitely have been my Blip for the day. There was another smaller one, Les Demoiselles, which was a working paper organ and had amongst it's delights flying harpies, a breast-feeding Virgin Mary and Maggie Thatcher rising up and stealing a bottle of milk!

If you are anywhere near Compton Verney this is definitely worth a visit, and is on until the end of September. And as I couldn't take any pictures in the exhibition, this is a view of a bridge in the gardens, which were designed by Capability Brown.