My first ever visit to Montacute took place in mid-September. Montacute is an Elizabethan house with gardens and parkland in Somerset, and it is maintained by National Trust. The house was completed in 1601, and it has the longest Long Gallery of its kind in England and houses over sixty Elizabethan portraits. The grounds have been used as a filming location for various productions from "Wolf Hall" to "Sense and Sensibility". The owner of the house obtained wealth through lawyer positions in Parliament and acted as prosecutor during the Gunpowder plot.
The house was built on land that once belonged to Montacute Priory. The owners did not have fame for very long, and the house was sold and ended up being gambled away by another family. Items were sold, leaving the house an empty shell. It was acquired by the National Trust in the late 1920s.
The mansion was built in an "E" shape, which was one of the common plans for Elizabethan houses.
The Great Hall is built with Renaissance style stonework.
The Drawing Room and Parlour lead off of the Great Hall.
The Great Camber is furnished as a library today and is one of the most impressive rooms in the house.
The anteroom is a small room with paintings and leads off to other rooms, such as the main bedroom. The main bedroom was used in the early 20th century as a bedroom and included a plumbed bath which is hidden in a wardrobe. The bath appeared in a boxed in room.
Here are a couple of other bedrooms on the first floor.
One of the rooms contained an exhibition of stitchwork. These were bought and collected, and the human element best explains their history. Girls would learn this art and practice it in their free time. These pieces of cloth would be practiced on and kept in the girl's possessions with the other items. They would continue to learn their skill. Flowers seem to be the most common. A lot of these were used as gifts with messages stitched on some of these.
The main feature of the top floor is the Long Gallery, which is 52 meters long. It is the longest surviving Long Gallery and contains various vantage points to look over the grounds. Long Galleries were features and used as entertaining and exercising in poor weather. The rooms off of the Long Gallery contain exhibits from the National Portrait Gallery. Only a couple of the rooms were open, and these rooms showed prints of Tudors and Stewart monarchy.
There are over 300 acres of grounds. The yew trees in the garden have been trimmed for a "melted" shape, which was inspired by snow in 1947.
The grounds outside of the formal gardens were filled with sheep.
Montacute House is a pleasant house with grounds, and I was happy to explore the rooms and to look at the paintings. I also learned that this type of house is a common style of Elizabethan architecture and layout.
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