It has an easily attachable/detachable 60" self mulching mowing deck; a fully articulated self-leveling front end loader; and 3 point / PTO couplings at the back for the grader blade, fert spreader, etc.
It is much more maneuverable than our other tractor, so we will be able to mow the orchard now without using the push mower, as well as being able to mow around all the trees without lugging the push mower across the estate.
It will be great in addition to the mule for farm work, as well as shifting large quantities of mulch for the gardens.
They seem well engineered and have good mechanical support in Hamilton, so we shouldn't have any problems. Now we just need to sell the old tractor and mower.
Houghton Hall in Norfolk has been the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Cholmondeley since the establishment of the title in 1815. It was built for the first prime minister of Great Britain, Sir Robert Walpole (later to become the 1st Earl of Orford), and is a seminal example of Palladian architecture.
Walpole was the leader of the Whigs (initially a political faction which later became a political party, opposed to the Tories, to the Monarchy and in particular to the Carolingian and Stuart Kings. They came to prominence during the rebellion. Walpole came to power during the reign of George I - II and helped secure the Hanoverian succession effectively quelling any future Jacobite pretenders. He was leader of the party for 2 decades, and was England's first 'Prime Minister' from 1730 to 1742.
He was also the first minister to inhabit 10 Downing street, which was gifted to him personally by George II. He would not except it as a personal gift, but did accept it as a ministerial residence, for the First Lord of the Treasury (a position still held by English prime ministers today.
David George Philip Cholmondeley is the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley (Viscount Malpas from birth until 1968, then Earl of Rocksavage until 1990), and the current Lord Great Chamberlain of the United Kingdom. He lives with his family at Houghton Hall.
Above: An older photo of the current Marquess
Houghton's chief architect was Colen Campbell, of Vitruvius Britannicus fame. He was a leading Georgian Architect, and was in with Palladians such as Lord Burlington. He designed Burlington House.
As you can see from the previous design, the domes were added later. These were designed by James Gibbs, another famous architect (noted for the Oxford Camerata and the church of St Martin in the fields). He was a neoclassical and Palladian architect, although he was shunned from the official circles of Palladians such as Burlington because Gibbs was a Tory and a Catholic.
Above and below interior shots by Paul Barker in English Country House Interiors, by Jeremy Musson, Rizzoli, NY, 2011. Via Style Court.
The Park and Gardens
The estate comprises 1000 acres (and abuts the Queen's private residence, Sandringham). Charles Bridgeman was the 18th centrury landscape designer employed to develop the grounds. He demolished the previously geometric and slightly baroque gardens (and along with them the village of Houghton) and relaid a more natural landscape style park (in a similar style to Lancelot Brown) with wide avenues.
The present Marquess spent a lot of time in the 1990s and 2000s restoring much of the gardens. Below is the 5 acre award winning walled garden.
Hedges and typical English flower borders feature greatly within the gardens...
The church of St Martins also lies within the grounds of Houghton Hall, remaining from the previous village that was shifted to make way for the hall's grounds...
Houghton holds annual horse trials...
The hall has its own stable block, based around a quadrangle...
Above: Interior of Quad
Below: Exterior of stables
Above photo by Ell Brown via Foter
The family has another country seat apart from Houghton Hall, Cholmondeley Castle (surrounded by a 7,500 acres estate) in Cheshire...
Alas, like so many families have been forced to do, the Cholmondeley's have had to sell several paintings in lieu of inheritance tax. Luckily, as national treasures, they remain on public display at the National Gallery and the V&A. To add insult to injury, in 1990 Jean Baptiste Oudry's White Duck painting was stolen from Houghton...
They have also auctioned furniture from time to time...
Above: A red lacquer bachelor's chest (Ca. 1705) recently auctioned once graced Houghton. It was acquired by Sybil Sassoon (1894-1989), Countess of Rocksavage, in Deauville before 1921, subsequently passed to her brother, Sir Philip Sassoon of Trent Park, Hertfordshire, and thence by descent at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, to her grandson David, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, by whom it was sold.
More recently the current Marquess has brought back the art works which his ancestor, Sir George Walpole, sold to Catherine the Great for The Hermitage. You can preview some of the artworks here.
Well, it will be three weeks tomorrow since I arrived in Dubbo and time passes quickly when one is finding one's feet.
The homesickness pangs have started to sneak in now and then. Foolish things, like waking up in the morning and turning over to find that there is no cup of coffee waiting for you on the bedside table, or dropping one's toast on the floor and calling for the dog, only to realise he's not there.
People have continued to be friendly and all my colleagues are lovely people. The work is varied and exciting. I have seen my first snake bites and spider bites (and coming from a country that has no poisonous animals it seems quite exciting). There seems to be a real need in the area, and it is the last major hospital before you hit the large nothing to the west.
Life at Willowbrook is ticking on. I hear that we have bought a new tractor and lawnmower; that our head gardener and farm manager has everything under control.
We had the final Highland calf born - a boy, and have sold 4 of the other calves, which means that we can now buy a bull for the fold. Peter has sourced a lovely much handled 5 year old pedigree bull, called McIntyre...
He should arrive in March, just in time to do the business.
Well, that's all for now. I am enjoying keeping up with everyone's blogs now that after 3 weeks I finally have broadband - Yay. It is just about time for another installment of the Great Estates Series, so I shall get onto that for this weekend.
Till then I'll leave you with this charming song I came across: These foolish things (remind me of you)...
After a day of frantic last minute goodbyes,
I set off at 4am from the airport. I had forgotten that hour existed. Dubbo
awaited…
Warm and friendly is an understatement for
Dubbo. Flying over a patchwork quilt of varying shades of brown and red, I landed
in the middle of a heat wave when a lot of the state of NSW was suffering from
wild fires. The temperatures are in the 40s, with the expectation they will get
higher this weekend. I had left behind my family and the green lush pastures of
Willowbrook to work in a burning desert – this is not what the tourist
brochures had shown!
Standing at the baggage carousel I wondered
how I was going to get into town.
“Excuse me”, I said to the lady next to me. “What is the best way for me
to get into town - I need to go to the Base Hospital”. “Well, you could call a
taxi, but we are going near there, so we can drop you off. My Name’s Coleen and
this is my husband Barry”. And so it was
that Coleen and Barry kindly dropped my from the airport to the doors of the
ED, giving me a guided tour of Dubbo on the way.
The staff at the hospital are all very
friendly. Still, I am filled with trepidation about taking my first real job as
a specialist, running a Emergency Department, taking weekly teaching sessions
for all the junior doctors, and becoming au fait with how the health service
runs in a different county. There is no option but to embrace it all with
fervour and hope for the best.
I have been given a lovely air conditioned
2 bedroom apartment and a new Nissan X-trail for my stay here. I spent the
afternoon cleaning, rearranging the furniture, and stocking the cupboards with
a few staples.
My job this week is to try to sort out an
internet connection and cell phone. Not having a credit history in this
country, and only having been with my current employer for ‘0 days’ was not
what most of the telecom providers wanted to hear yesterday. We shall see
whether they can step up to the same level of trust and kindness as Barry and
Coleen.
Unfortunately my first post of the year starts off by announcing calamity: I decided to upgrade my blogger account to Google+. I then found a whole lot of photos in the albums of my Google+ account, and not knowing any better deleted them, with the result that it has removed HUNDREDS of photos from previous posts. It is going to take me weeks to put them back on the blog, if I can even find them again.
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Whilst all care is taken to ensure any pictures used are in the public domain, or are allowed to be reproduced with credit given, it is possible for genuine mistakes to be made.
Should a picture or other file be published on this blog, which you know it to be your property, please post a comment to that effect, stating whether you wish additional credit to be given to you, or whether you wish the item in question to be removed, and it will be removed as expediently as possible with the sincerest of apologies.
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