Just to prove that normal life does still go on in amongst the speculation as to who is going to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and now who on earth can take over from Jeremy Corbyn, I am posting photographs of the roof of Michael and Patty Hopkins’ great opera house at Glyndebourne, one of the most subtle combinations of the rural and the metropolitan:-
And the view across the lawns to the South Downs:-
En route to Sussex, we stopped off at the Ditchling Museum, which we have shamefully never been to in spite of the fact that it has recently been very beautifully renovated by Adam Richards architects, skilfully maintaining its small-scale and vernacular character. We would have liked twice the time to enjoy the collection, including a small exhibition of Edward Johnston’s typography.
The Museum:-
We sped through the foggy Sussex countryside to attend a morning concert by Garam Cho, a young Korean concert pianist who came second in last year’s Hastings’ International Piano Concerto Competition. She played Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Liszt. The concert was held in Fairlight Hall, a large Victorian castle in the hills east of Hastings, designed by John Crake, a pupil of Decimus Burton. The original owner was William Drew Lucas Shadwell, born Drew, who took his uncle’s name on inheriting his fortune (his uncle had developed Hastings, including its racecourse). His wife Florentia was fiercely devout and wrote evangelical novellas for the Religious Tract Society. The estate was alcohol-free. But William turned to Catholicism and died in Florence en route to Rome:-
Over the years we have many times passed Middle Farm just near Charleston on the A272. This year we stopped to stock up. It has grown into a vast capitalist enterprise with every possible variety of food and plant and, most impressively, beer, cider, perry and gin, from specialist suppliers throughout the country, not just Harveys, the local brewers:-
Before setting off to Charleston for the day we wandered round the garden where we are staying enjoying the sudden sense of early summer in the Sussex countryside:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 