Strawberry Hill

Strawberry Hill is not just a cheap wine that high school kids consume in large amounts each weekend. It's an actual place, and I went there. Back in 1748, this dude, Horace Walpole, he was a politician, writer and collector created Strawberry Hill as his summer villa. It is both one of the earliest and finest examples of the Gothic revival and established the style now know as "Strawberry Hill Gothic". I pulled that last bit of information from the pamphlet they gave me.

When we walked up I commented that I thought it would be bigger. Well, it is. This is just 1/16 of Horace summer villa. Check out the sun!
This is the back of the above picture, but see to the left the darker building? Imagine that to go the length of 2 football fields.

We had to wear booties on the tour

I took this from the bottom level of the villa, known as The Hall. It's 3 stories from where I'm standing. This is a shot of the ceiling.

This mirror hangs in The Blue Bed Chamber.

The shape of this door, classic Gothic.

I am totally gonna have a chimney place like this someday.

The Gallery

Fifty-six foot long and seventeen high, and thirteen wide without the five recesses. The ceiling is taken from one of the side aisles of Henry VIIth chapel at Westminster Abbey.

The Great North Bed Chamber

You might be wondering why all my pictures have a chimney in them. Because that is all that is left in each room.

The Beauclerc Closet

The walls are hung with Indian blue damask.

...part of that...WORLD!

When the sun comes out, so does the crowd. After our Strawberry Hill tour, we ate dinner down by the river with the rest of Richmond. Funny story: It was high tide so the river was flowing over onto the sidewalk. This chick, who was on a bike, rode out toward the river not realizing how close she was to the edge and fell in! It was so funny! Most of the hill saw it and there was this unison gasp as we watched her slow descent into the water, a loud burst of laughter and then an applause as she climbed out. Side note: That water is disgusting. I wouldn't let my dog go in that water.

Susan "Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun" B.