Antony

Just over the border of Cornwall is the 18th century National Trust property, Antony House. It's in the care of the National Trust, but the Carew Pole family still lives there. I can't quite imagine having strangers traipsing in and out of one's house, but I imagine it's a matter of necessity, since running an estate of this size would be prohibitively expensive. Anyway, I'm told they only spend part of the year here. The rest of the year they spend at another of theirs homes abroad, Italy, I think. Such a tough life.

The family lineage is quite extensive. John Carew was a member of Parliament and and sided with the Parliamentarians in the Civil War. He was one of the Regisists (men who voted to behead Charles I) and during the Stuart Restoration he was found guilty, hanged, drawn and quartered. It was his family who later acquired Antony House in a particularly advantageous marriage. The house has a number of extraordinary paintings, including works by Joshua Reynolds and a portrait of King Charles I at his trial.

The house, for all its size, feels warm and livable, if a bit grand.

I loved all the little objets d'art, particularly this pair of monkeys.

The computer on the desk in the Tapestry Room seemed a jarring intrusion, but needs must, I suppose.

The library was very impressive.

Antony House is not very far from Plymouth, which was nearly obliterated in World War II. The house was requisitioned in 1940 and two hundred Wrens (Women's Royal Navy Service) lived here. It was exceedingly lucky to avoid damage in the war.

Most of the rooms upstairs were closed to the public, but the Porch Bedroom was open. This has served as a guest room for a number of important visitors over the years, including King Charles when he was Prince Charles as well as Princess Anne and Princess Margaret.

Most of the paintings in the house are from the 17th and 18th Century, but there are some more recent family portraits as well, including this portrait of Sir Richard Carew Pole.

When I researched Sir Richard, who died in 2024, I discovered a remarkable man. He was very proud of his family's daffodil business which grew to 200 acres and gave many local people seasonal employment. He was a former president of the Royal Horticultural Society and played an important role in both the Eden Project and the Tate St. Ives in Cornwall. On the national stage he became a trustee of the Tate Gallery, Royal Academy, and National Heritage Lottery Fund. Art was a particular passion of his and he apparently loved painting when he was at Antony House.

The most enjoyable part of our visit was chatting with two of the volunteers who shared a wealth of knowledge about the house and who gave us recommendations of other places to visit, both in Cornwall and in London.

When it was time to leave we drove back to Plymouth via the ferry

and had dinner at the Dock Cafe. It was an interesting experience. We were the only two people in the restaurant and as we were finishing our meal we discovered why. The restaurant is usually closed on Wednesday evening, but Bruce had made an online reservation and the person who runs the website had forgotten to block the night. Rather than contact us to cancel, they stayed open for us. How nice. Happily for the waitress we didn't linger because we were off to the opening night of John Bishop's 25th Anniversary tour.

If you don't know him, John Bishop is a wonderful Liverpudlian comic and had it not been for the terrible sound mixing, it would have been a fantastic evening. But because John has such a thick Scouser accent and there was so much reverb on the microphone, I probably missed about a quarter of what he said. Oh well, it was a fun night out anyway.