Last week to Ewell Village to see if we could capture the Wellingtonia in the grounds of Ewell Castle School, that is to say the school proper, not the out-house opposite the entrance to Bourne Hall.
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| Not window taxed |
On the way we paused to snap this heritage example of tax evasion by the propertied classes. Nothing much changes in that department.
A view of the target tree through the locked main gates. With the main buildings being very much in the style of the present big house (not the palace that is) in Nonsuch Park. Perhaps it was the same builder.
Then down Vicarage Lane and onto the by-pass where we stumbled on a fine cache of something which was probably illegal. Perhaps one of those tricky illegalities where possession is legal but the wrong sort of consumption is not. From where I associated to the TB fact that growing opium poppies is legal, but making delicate incisions - perhaps with a razor blade - on the ripening seeds cases is not. But then again, perhaps not so tricky or unusual. Kitchen knives are entirely necessary and entirely legal, but there are plenty of things which you can do with them which are not. Flick knives rather different, it not being obvious why a law abiding citizen would want such a thing.
Round to the by-pass entrance to the gate to the sports field there, from where I had first clocked the tree in question, more or less dead centre in the snap above, taken neatly through the bars. Much larger in real life, yet another example of what we see not being what one gets on our telephones. The camera does lie, systematically.
Back to the village up Ox Lane, which took us as close to our tree as we were going to get.
Took in Glyn House, a Victorian pile, now another out-house of our Ewell Castle School. The place which must have given its name to the nearby Glyn School, which took both our sons, for free. At the point of consumption that is.
Clearly the right baronets, but not clear that the house had anything to do with the family as: 'Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Richard Hamilton Glyn, 9th Baronet OBE, TD, DL (12 October 1907 – 24 October 1980) was a British army officer, Conservative politician and authority on breeding pedigree dogs … His interest in livestock derived from his work on the family estates in Dorset, which he farmed from the 1940s'. So entirely proper establishment people, but Dorset rather than Surrey. So perhaps here some family of City upstarts, in trade, who took the name to try and get a bit of class.
We were amused to find this special corner of the graveyard, by the church, for important people. This one being the box for a daughter of the parish, who went on to marry a chap from Staffordshire, before expiring in Bath. I wonder what they did to her body before shipping it back to London? I think Vice-Admiral Nelson, for example, was pickled in a barrel of rum for shipment.
The barn at the back, being the very one which featured in the Holman Hunt pot boilers called 'The Light of the World'. One of which, as I recall, was shipped around the world, collecting shillings from the faithful to support Hunt in the manner to which he had become accustomed.
I close with what appears to be a new-to-me sort of duckweed, snapped just outside Bourne Hall. The stuff in our own (very small) ponds has pairs of round leaves, rather than rosettes of thin ones. A right pain - unless you are growing the stuff in sun-lit lagoons in hot countries for fodder or something.
PS: when I went past the Ewell by-pass gate on Monday, the gate was open and groundsmen were up to something. I did think about asking whether I would be allowed to touch the tree, then accessible, and so score it, but I thought better of it.
Reference 1: https://www.ewellcastle.co.uk/. One of the many schools attended by the late Oliver Reed, whom I now know to come of illustriously theatrical stock.
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