Leeds Castle

Today was the first full day of the mid-term break. We have decided to spend 5 days in Kent and the South-East of England.

Our main stop of the day was at Leeds Castle in Maidstone. It sits on 500 acres and was set up as a charitable trust by its last private owner, Lady Baillie, in 1974. The list of the previous owners of Leeds Castle is a veritable Who's Who of English history. At one time, a Lord Culpepper was asked to take the Prince of Wales into exile in France. The castle and 5 million acres of land in Virginia (all the land between the Potomac and Rappahancock rivers) was given to the Culpepper family as a thank you gift. The 3rd Lord Culpepper had no sons so the castle and the land were given to the eldest daughter's husband's family, the Fairfax's, upon his and his wife's deaths. The plot of land in Virginia was broken up and later became, among others, Culpepper and Fairfax counties. Later, Fairfax county was broken in two with the second part becoming Loudoun county.

There was a nice walk from the entrance up to the castle. We passed through a duck enclosure, though not all the ducks remained there, and up a path that brought us through trees to a big clearing where the castle sat. The castle had a moat around the entire castle. We were able to see most of the castle. Its serves as a converence center and also a hall for special occasions. After the castle tour we got a bite to eat and, as the weather turned windy and rainy, walked through the aviary towards a hedge maze. Even though it was raining the maze was fun at the center of the maze was a litte hill that looked down to a grotto that was made in the 1980's. We then walked down to the very ornate grotto. "The Grotto presents the ‘underworld’ in a series of macabre forms and representations: alchemy, fossils, bones and mythical beasts created out of shells, minerals, wood and other materials." - from the Leeds Castle web site