We left Haworth early and decided to settle in Ripon for two nights. They have a very large cathedral - which makes Ripon a "city" rather than a town or village. Our hotel is nice enough but under renovation so there are a few inconveniences like walking through construction stuff to get to our room, which was mostly light green.
Next, we visited Newby Hall and Gardens which were lovely. The herbaceous border had very little spring interest - mostly summer interest which we will miss. There were many flowering shrubs and other plants. On a scale from 1-10, with Longwood being 10, it was a 7. We only spent 15 minutes in the Hall looking at gorgeous walls, ceilings furniture and decorations. My favorite was the very first room, which was also the smallest. The larger rooms were nice too but we needed to go so that we could visit Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal (a park).
At the abbey, we spent a lot of time looking at the ruined stones and hearing about how horrible Henry VIII was by removing the roof and other valuable items thereby accelerating the process of the abbey’s decay. Amazingly, there are lots of plants living and thriving atop the walls without soil, only the sandstone blocks. It was fascinating to learn about the history and the changes of the abbey but the guide said it would take weeks to learn the bulk of it.
At the Tearoom at Studley Royal, we had tea. I had some good Yorkshire damp ginger cake. The park was not as great as described and we saw only six deer in the deer park out of supposedly 600.
We drove to Pately Bridge and back - I drove - and it was a very nice drive through the country but it was getting dark and we wanted to hear the horn blower at 9 pm in Ripon. There has been a horn sounding every evening since 886 (?). Originally, after the horn was sounded, the constable and elders were responsible for the village safety. If you were robbed, you could sue them. Every night, the ghost of the first mayor (also the last wakeman) waits to make sure the horn blower does his job. There’s more to the story but I don’t remember all of it.
Later, we sat near the cathedral eating Wensleydale cheese and Jacob’s crackers (just like Wallace and Gromit). It was fun. Neal had traditional cheese and I had onion and chive - mine was better.
[Ziring MicroWeb Home] [Neal Ziring] [Julie Ziring] [Sign Guestbook]
