Hatchlands Park

We visited Hatchlands Park in East Clandon this afternoon. It was built in 1757-59 for Admiral Edward Boscawen and his wife Fanny, funded from  prize money won by the admiral during his campaigns in the Seven Years War.  It passed through the hands of several wealthy families until it was gifted to the National Trust in 1945.  It remains a family home with Alec Cobbe as its tenant, so it is not fully open to the public. The house contains Mr Cobbe's collection of keyboard instruments dating back centuries and is crammed full of paintings including two Titians. The National Trust always marks the Christmas season in the way it presents its historic buildings and, this year, Hatchlands has a Narnia theme recognising that its owner during the second world war took in child evacuees. Those children's  imaginations must have run wild in such a rambling property amid such splendid parkland. The main photo is of wickerwork deer and a fox alongside the path leading  to the house entrance. The extras are of my daughter, Jen, sitting on one of the Cair Paravel thrones at the end of the Narnia trail, and views of the winter skyline in the park and of the house itself.