The walls in the central hall at Wallington art covered in Pre-Raphaelite paintings by William Bell Scott. The paintings depict scenes from great moments in the history of Northumberland.

The result is a triumph of Pre-Raphaelite art, a colourful and vividly refreshing Victorian idealised vision of history, from the age of Celtic saints to the industrial revolution in the north. One panel shows the building of Hadrian’s Wall, another the famous scene of Grace Darling and her father heroically rowing to save stranded sailors off the Farne islands.

This photo taken through glass and in dim light is far from perfect but I wanted to share this exquisite model with you.

A model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem which stood from 1145 until 1808. Perhaps more correctly called the Church of the Resurrection, this model is one of many made by craftsmen in Bethlehem under Franciscan supervision, or by the Franciscans themselves. At least four examples have survived in England. The Church is shown as it was between 1554 and 1719 and each part can be removed giving access to the interior.*

*From an information sheet next to the model

First thing after breakfast we set off to visit Brinkburn Priory, which is a place neither of us have visited before. The Priory is in a lovely, tranquil, shady setting but I thought that the nearby dilapidated manor house detracted from the setting as did a group of photographers with tripods getting in the way of our outside shots. The priory had been booked for a wedding at 12pm and the bride was walking about the grounds in curlers and what looked like night clothes. As we were leaving we could hear sounds of organ music as a choir rehearsed for the wedding.

We headed off towards Rothbury where we hoped to find some prehistoric rock carving that were nearby. I think we must have been on the wrong road because we failed miserably to find their location. We carried on to Rothbury where I hoped to visit a nice clothes shop that I have frequented before. I was sad to see that it had closed down, although I did visit the nearby shoe shop and purchased a pair of shoes of a type I have been trying to find for some time.

We deliberated on where we should go for lunch. Cragside was nearby but we elected to go to Wallington instead as we had only been there on one previous occasion. After lunch in Wallington’s tea shop we visited the house so that we could enjoy the gardens at our leisure. We enjoyed the house with the sun lighting up the rooms; on our previous visit it was raining and this made the rooms rather dark.

We took the short walk to the walled garden where we noticed that many of the garden statues had gone and that there was scaffolding around the glass house. We meandered the garden in the sunshine making up for our last visit which had been cut short due to the rain. We sat outside for afternoon tea and a shared flapjack next to the garden’s seasonal cafe. After finishing our tour of the garden we headed back to Alnwick via the scenic route. I called in at Barter Books quickly to pick up the book on prehistoric rock carvings that I had seen when we called in briefly on our day of arrival only to find that it had gone! It seems that rock carvings were off the day’s menu.

We went back to the B&B to freshen up before dinner at Lilburns. The food was excellent and if we had been staying in Alnwick a little longer we would have returned for another visit. Mr C decided that he wanted to visit the nearby real ale pub before returning to the B&B for the evening. It was an interesting experience… We were greeted by the sight of a giant leek placed on a table near to the pub entrance. It transpired that the annual garden competition had taken place recently and that although large in proportion this leek was not the winning specimen!

Khalil Gibran

I’m Only A Cat

I’m only a cat,
and I stay in my place…
Up there on your chair,
on your bed or your face!

I’m only a cat,
and I don’t finick much…
I’m happy with cream
and anchovies and such!

I’m only a cat,
and we’ll get along fine…
As long as you know
I’m not yours… you’re all mine!

Author Unknown