We have recently returned from a caravanning trip to Longleat. After a very dry winter, we were subjected to some very inclement weather, along with the rest of the country. The caravan site is within the park, but segregated from the Safari Park (thank goodness). We did hear the lions occasionally and the sea lions regularly. We didn’t manage a trip into the Safari Park due to the bad weather, maybe another time.
Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. It is noted for its Elizabethan country house maze, landscaped parkland and safari park. The house is set in over 900 acres of parkland, landscaped by Capability Brown. It was the first stately home to open to the public, and also claims the first safari park outside Africa.
The house was built by Sir John Thynne, and designed mainly by Robert Smythson, after the original priory was destroyed by fire in 1567. It took 12 years to complete and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain.
| The only lion we saw | Garden topiary |
Getting close to the less dangerous exhibits
The Courts Garden, near Bradford-on-Avon – the house is still lived in, but the gardens are in the ‘hands’ of the National Trust.
There are water gardens and herbaceous borders interspersed with topiaries. 
After The Courts Garden we visited Great Chalfield Manor, fortunately the weather improved. If you recognise the house it appeared in ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’.
| View from the front | Rear entrance |
Oldie Photo – August 1977 - Prague, Czechoslovakia – another holiday we abandoned early due to wet weather. The water in the foreground is the River Vltava - tents had been pitched here the night before. Out tent and car can be seen on the right of the picture – we were on the verge of moving because the river was due to rise another metre during the day!
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