Castle and Church on the Mount. ...Part 2.. ...

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Until Victorian times the way we have come up was the only entrance to the castle, more steps and as usual Sherryl is waiting for mum, lol, bet the postmans pleased he doesn’t have to deliver to this entrance…..

The Entrance Hall..

The glass case contains the remains of a 15th century cannon found outside the west door during The Wars of the Roses.
The trunk dated 1663 belonged to Colonel St Aubyn, he was appointed the Governer of the Mount in 1647 .
There are weapons and armoury all over the castle collected by the family over hundreds of years…………………………………………………………..
Lots of winding passageways to follow as well, its always at points like this that Sherryl and I lose each other, I catch up eventually, we always agree to not change floors before meeting up wherever we are as sometimes the mobiles don’t work, lol…..

The elegant gentleman in the picture is the first Lord Levan, pictured after being made a peer in 1887, in the 1870s he spent over £100.000 an absolute fortune in those days, adding the east wing which is the part of the castle where the family now live, he was also spent money restoring the derelict buildings down near the harbour into the cottages we see today..
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How about having that framework as your ceiling…

The watercolour painting is of Mont- St- Michel….

In the 11th century St Michaels Mount, the island and various landholdings on the mainland were under control of the Mont, however that control weakened during The Hundred Years War with France and finally severed in 1414 when Henry V gave St Michaels Mount to Syon Abbey in Twickenham…

The library.

The Chevy Chase room, no its not named after the actor instead its a reference to a medieval ballad and the hunting scenes in the frieze that runs all around the room, the long table which was made in about 1620 is reversable, the shiny side for special occasions and the rough side for everyday use, the room was used as the main dining room until the 1950s….Bet they dont don’t use Mr Sheen on that surface….

See the winding stairs through the glass floor, it used to be an outside stairway leading down to the garrison courtyard, now looking down there gave me the creeps, thank goodness I don’t have to go that way, instead we are going through the arched one at the other end of the room….

Out onto the roof, I know that was a quick flit but who wants to be indoors when the sun is shining, not only that its the route to follow,lol…

Check out the views..

Long way down isn’t it, 200ft to the formal gardens, a challenge to the gardeners, its said they need to be able to absail to reach some areas and you can see why, the plants on the southern curve of the gardens gain from the amount of light they get and also the heat the rockface absorbs during the day and dispels at night, this creates the microclimates the exotic plants and succulents to be found in the gardens need to flourish, these gardens were designed in a way that makes them look as good from the top as they are when wandering amongst them and also looking upwards…

Lovely splash of colour against the rock..

View of the mainland, harbour and some of the cottages…

The turret is at the top of the granite spiral staircase which connects all the floors in the east wing, would you believe this is where the families children did their skateboarding, well they could hardly use the cobbled streets down in the village could they, least they wouldn’t ever have been late arriving home, lol…

The upper bedroom is where Charles11 slept before fleeing to the Isles of Scilly in 1646….

Church of St Michael and All Angels.

A medieval church with nave and central tower first built by Bernard le Bec, Abbot of Mont-St- Michel in Normandy in 1135, largely rebuilt in the 14th century probably using the same stones, it has been restored over the centuries, they have their own chaplain and there are services held at the church every Sunday from the end of May until end of Sept, also Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and a special service on St Michael’s Day Sept 29th..
A document supposedly issued by Pope Gregory V11 in 1070 granted St Michaels Mount freedom fom episcopal jurisdiction, therefore even to this day the church remains independent of the diocese of Truro, this means that before a marriage service can take place on the island a licence has to be granted by the Archbisop Of Canterbury, only people with very close connections to the island are granted a licence.
The marriage of Clemency St Aubyn in 2012 was the first one of a daughter of the house in over 100yrs…

As you look at the wall of the church you can see the very top of the mount protruding between the steps…

A peep into the church…

The bronze statue is St Michael defeating Lucifer whilst offering the hand of mercy..

Not many pics in here, it never seems right somehow when one can see people are having a few quiet moments……………………………………………………………
As we approach the north terrace we follow the walkway round the Blue Drawing Rooms .
Originally a Lady Chapel probably built to provide comfort and lodgings to the many travellers, earliest reference found was 1430, however it fell down, luckily an 18th century cornish writer and friend of the family William Borlasse described a visit to the mount in 1731, from his very detailed description a reconstruction was undertaken and by 1762 the interior of these Gothic style set of rooms was restored to what we see today…….
Queen Victoria sat on the blue sofa when visiting the mount….

Apparently whilst holidaying off the coast of Cornwall on the Royal Yacht in 1846 Victoria and Albert paid a surprise visit to the mount, the family were away at the time and the Queen and Prince Albert were shown around the castle by the housekeeper Thomasina Syms, later in an entry in her diary the Queen described Thomasina as a nice, tidy little woman..

Now that just proves that their grapevine was not as good as ours is today, imagine not being at home when the Queen paid a visit, how embarrassing, bet somebody was spitting feathers when arriving home to news like that, lol…………………………………………………………………..
The Map Room…
This room was added in about 1780, the maps date back to late 16th century, one dated 1612 being a map showing where according to the legends giants are said to have lived in Cornwall…

Model of The Mount….

Built entirely out of champagne corks and made to scale its the work of Henry Lee who was butler at the Mount in the 1930’s, the family always drank champagne with their fish courses, its said that Henry worked on the Mount for 49yrs so thats lots of fish courses served to provide lots of corks, lol…………………………………………
Leaving the map room we find the stairs, twisting and turning under the watchful eyes of past and present…

James and Mary St Aubyn, present occupiers on one side of the door and the portrait on the other side is Dolly Pentreath, she lived in nearby Mousehole and her claim to fame was that she was the last person to speak the cornish language ….

The long passage created during the renovations of 1780, the walls contain many prints of the castle and the village as they were before all the renovations…..

Remember the turret up near the church, well this is the inside, a granite spiral staircase that connects all the floors in the east wing..

Another long tunnel and this one I found a bit creepy…

Its ok now I can see daylight….

The saddle just inside the exit door came from Buffalo Bills Wild West Show of 1904, during a 2yr tour of the UK the show played at Penzance, whilst there Colonel Cody or Buffalo Bill as he was known visited St Michael’s Mount….

• 2 Sep, 2014
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