Isle of Man, Nottingham, Silverstone and Kingsclere

Isle of Man countryside

On Wednesday morning, July 11, we set off to explore parts of the Isle of Man after stopping in at the office of the company who had made a grave monument for Anne, Peter's mother, who died in 1978 while the family while was living in the Isle of Man.  After learning that the gravestone had been placed by the church wall where her ashes are buried, we drove off to West Baldwin and St. Luke's church to find the grave.  The skies were clear, the air was warm (although the breezes were a bit chilly) and the rolling countryside was divided by centuries-old walls made of the stones cleared from the fields.  Herds of white sheep made bright dots on the vibrant green pastures.  Crofts--farm houses or cottages--in this sparsely populated rural area hide behind hedgerows.

Anne's grave at St. Luke's

St. Luke's is a quaint country church with a cemetery on two sides.  The Browns attended this church when they lived for a year in a house down the road, and Anne loved the view from the churchyard.  We picked wildflowers and put them on her grave.

Peter at Tynwald

We drove by the first house Arthur, Anne and the three boys lived in for the first year they were in the Isle of Man on our way to Tynwald Hill, a underwhelming, terraced, man-made mound where once a year, on July 5, the two houses of the legislature for the Isle of Man meet in the open air.  Here, all laws are promulgated and special petitions are received.  Tynwald claims to be over 1,000 years old, and thus the oldest continuous parliament in the world.  There is a small museum adjacent to St. John's Church which provided some interesting history of the contributions of the Vikings to the government and culture of the Manx people.

Our next stop was Peel, where the castle on St. Patrick's Isle--connected to the mainland by a causeway--dominates the view along the waterfront of this small city on the west coast of the Isle of Man.  The mouth of the Neb River is crossed by a lock which creates a small marina filled with fishing and small pleasure craft.  We walked around the walls of the castle and then bought lunch at a take-out cafe above the beach, eating at a table with views of the castle, the sandy beach and the town.

boats in the marina at Peel and the Castle

Next we stopped by Ballaleigh, near Kirk Michael, the house where the Browns lived after moving from West Baldwin.  We walked along the mucky paths from the road down into a wooded valley, stopping at a small glen below Spooyt Vane (White Spout), one of Anne's favorite places on the island.  We all skipped stones on the surface of the stream.

Spooyt Vane

In the town of Kirk Michael, we saw the house where Granny Brown lived, a couple blocks away from the church.  The cemetery surrounds the old church on three sides.  Although there is no marker, we found the area where Peter's paternal grandparents are buried.

We drove further north along the west coast to the town of Jurby, where Arthur worked manufacturing various things.  The area has changed since the mid-1970s, but we located the new premises of Jurby Junk, a second-hand store full of nothing other than, well, junk--and an assortment of cats.  We had hoped to see many tailless Manx cats, but this was the only place where we spotted just one.  The place reeked of cat urine.  Shadowy, narrow aisles were lined with shelving, packed floor to ceiling with cast-off china, glassware, trinkets, and other things of little value.  Amazingly, Stella, the friendly owner, has made a living off this enterprise for decades. 

Matthew, Margaret, Katya and Peter in Ramsey

From Jurby, we drove east to the city of Ramsey, where we met Margaret Jones, a long-time friend of the Browns and a life-long resident of the Isle of Man, and Geoff and Eileen Crellan, who lived in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) when Peter and his family did.  We all had dinner a nice restaurant, Harbour Lights, and entertained each other with stories of living and traveling abroad.

The highest point in the Isle of Man, Snaefell (at 2034 feet), was shrouded in mist as we drove by the summit on our way back to Douglas where we relaxed at our hotel apartment, enjoying the view along the promenade from the windows.

The next morning (Thursday, July 12) was another sunny day!  We packed the car by 10 a.m. and then walked around the waterfront of Douglas before visiting the Manx Museum, which has informative displays on the history of the island.  I was particularly interested in the development of the island as a tourist destination during the Victorian Era and in the influence of Viking invaders.  Fascinating were the cases with hoards of shining silver coins and ornaments which were buried by Vikings for safekeeping.  Most of these hoards have been discovered fairly recently, and it is estimated that there are many more to be found.

gardens, fountain and Victorian buildings along the promenade in Douglas

At noon, we went to Nobles Hospital on the outskirts of Douglas to visit Phyl Partington, who was there recovering from a viral infection.  She actually seemed to be doing quite well and was expecting to go home the next day.  Like Margaret Jones, she is an old family friend.  She was pleased that we stopped by to see her.

Peter putting flowers on his mother's grave

We drove up into the hills one more time, having purchased a bouquet of sunflowers for Anne's grave.  After our visit to the churchyard, we drove down to the waterfront to board the ferry for our 3:00 departure to Liverpool.  I slept almost the entire journey; the sea was flat calm.  After navigating our way out of Liverpool, we drove on the motorways to the Peak District and enjoyed the Derbyshire countryside we passed through on our way to Beeston in Nottingham.  We arrived at the home of Peter's brother Mike, his wife Louise and their children Hannah and Simon after dinner and relaxed in the sitting room.  When Simon started talking about his plans for the next day, Matthew became quite enthralled and couldn't resist inviting himself to join Simon and his friends for a day of paint-balling in the woods.

I was not up on Friday morning, July 13, before they left on their adventure, from which they returned intact, excited, tired and filthy but unharmed (despite the inauspicious number and day of the week) except for some small red welts from close-range hits.  The rest of us spent this drizzly day relaxing and preparing for the party Mike and Louise were hosting the next day in celebration of their recent 50th birthdays.  (Actually, we did most of the relaxing and Louise did most of the working.)  Before dinner, a couple who are good friends with Mike and Louise dropped by with a gift.  We enjoyed talking with them, particularly the man, a quite interesting and entertaining army chaplain who bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Bean.

Katya and Matthew acting out "wreaking havoc" for Mike, Simon and Louise

Shortly after they left, Tim and Desmond arrived.  After dinner, we decided to play a game called masquerades (charades in America).  Some people were reluctant, but in the end we all enjoyed ourselves and had a few good laughs.  Matthew and Katya were quite amusing in their cooperative effort to get the others to guess the phrase "two abreast."  The winners, however, were Hannah, Peter and myself!

Mike, Hannah, Simon and Louise in their backyard

On Saturday, I was one of the later arrivals for breakfast the next morning, but we soon cleared the table and began bustling about getting ready for the large party that was planned.  Louise had made an abundance of food for lunch, which was followed later by at least half a dozen different homemade puddings (desserts for Americans) for the first wave of guests, which included her older sister Claire and most members of her family.  Claire's granddaughter Elsie, about age 2, was a delightful, exuberant girl who picked me for her new best girlfriend.  Luckily, the clouds had cleared and the rain had stopped, so the garden party Louise and Mike had envisioned became a reality.  Rob and Susan and their youngest son James as well as Uncle Peter and Aunt Helen were among the guests.  Everyone had a wonderful time, and it was too tempting to eat entirely too much of the delicious food.

By late afternoon, everyone except for family had departed.  We re-grouped, cleaned up and prepared for the second wave of guests, who arrived around 7:30 for a barbecue.  Even though the rain had returned and the air had become chilly again, the precipitation was intermittent, allowing for the grill to be used outdoors.  Most of the Browns congregated in the sitting room after eating (for me, because it was warmer there) and watched DVDs of converted cine films from the Brown boys' childhood.

Peter and Helen as well as Tim and Desmond left.  Susan and Rob went to the B&B they were staying at, leaving James behind to sleep in the house crowded with us and Claire and her family.  After getting another load in the dishwasher and cleaning up the buffet table, we all went to bed, leaving the rest of the kitchen to be cleaned the next day. 

Peter, our kids and I got up late the next morning (Sunday, July 15).  After eating breakfast and spending some time with the others, we packed up the car again and headed south.  On the way to Rob and Susan's house, we stopped at Silverstone Circuit, the race car track which is home to the British Grand Prix, where the Formula Student competition was taking place that weekend.  It is a testing ground for the next generation of world-class engineers. The competition challenges university students from around the world to design and build a single-seat racing car, which is then put to the test at this famous circuit.

Rob, Susan and James had already stopped there but had left shortly before our arrival.  We were told that if we parked and quickly made our way to the Copse track, we would see the final event of the day.  So we made our way there and then waited in the stands, shivering in the cold (at least it was not raining right then), for 45 minutes, with the kids badgering us to leave.  Finally, at little before 3:00, the first car of the staggered start emerged from the starting line and began to roar around the circuit, the driver maneuvering between rows of green cones and red cones, attempting to reach the highest possible speed without hitting any of them (a penalty of 3 seconds per cone, we learned).  The young people sitting behind us had designed this car, which was followed by three others.  Each driver made 11 laps before returning to the start, where another driver jumped in to do an additional 11 laps.  Because of the staggered starts, it was not clear who was in the lead most of the time.

Unfortunately, the race had to be temporarily stopped before any of the cars had reached the finish because Number 3 (the car designed by the students behind us, from Hertfordshire University), which was attempting to coast to the finish, had to stop after a burst of steam spewed out from the rear of the vehicle.  We left before the race resumed.

We had a lovely dinner after we arrived at Rob and Susan's house near Kingsclere.  The four adults took a walk afterwards along the roads and footpaths near their home before relaxing in the sitting room before bed.

We had hoped to play tennis this morning (Monday, July 16), but the rain has resumed and has been incessant all day.  Immie and James were both off to work after breakfast.  Our kids chose to relax and work on some summer reading for the next semester.  Rob, Susan, Peter and I visited the nearby Highclere Castle (where Immie happens to work in the marquee tea room).

Highclere Castle

This 1000 acre estate has been the country seat of the family of Earl and Countess of Carnarvon since the late 17th century.  The first Earl of Carnarvon was Henry Herbert, who was given this title by King George III.  The current residents are the 8th Earl of Carnarvon (George Reginald Oliver Molyneux Herbert), his Countess and their family.  The Jacobean-style mansion was remodeled during the early years of Queen Victoria's reign by Sir Charles Barry, the architect who had just finished the Houses of Parliament.  We toured the beautifully designed and decorated rooms on the ground level and first floor of the castle, most of which had family portraits from the last three centuries through the present, including works by Joshua Reynolds.

In the cellars, the former servants' quarters and working areas, is an Egyptian exhibition, based on the excavations of the 5th Earl who, along with his archaeological colleague Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922.  The 5th Earl was an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist, who started in 1907 to sponsor and take part in the excavation of tombs in Deir el-Bahari (Thebes).  Financially strapped after World War I, the earl was ready to stop his excavations but was persuaded to support Carter for one more season, the result of which was the discovery of King Tut's tomb.  There were actual artifacts from various excavations on display, many of which had been found in the castle in the 1980s, as well as reproductions of some of the most spectacular items from King Tut's burial site and treasury.

Also of interest was the life and work of the 5th Earl's wife, Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra Wombwell, the illegitimate daughter and heir of Alfred de Rothschild, an unmarried member of the prominent Rothschild family.  She was recognized particularly for opening Highclere Castle and subsequently a hospital in London and providing medical care for officers recuperating from wounds in the First War World.

Secret Garden, Highclere Castle

The gardens around the castle, even in the rain, are beautifully designed, and colorful summer flowers are in full bloom.  We enjoyed a stroll before driving to have lunch at a pub, Carnarvon Arms.

We have been spending the late afternoon relaxing.  Even though it is the middle of July, Rob started a fire in the stove, and in the sitting room it is warm and cozy.