Looking at it, I realised that I had meant to write, or at least put on my blog the photos I had taken of Beckford Tower. The hat shop has a golden cupola very much like the one on top of the tower.
Now William Beckford was an eccentric in the 18th century, he built Fonthill Abbey, which fell down after a few years due to shoddy workmanship of the builder AND its tower was too big. So Beckford moved to Bath bought a Georgian terraced house on one of the upper slopes, and then bought another house on the other side of the lane, and promptly built a bridge (very much like Pulteney Bridge in Bath) to join them up.
From here he made a path (about half a mile) to the top of the Lansdown, where he built his tower, and he would ride up each day and read/write his books. When he died the gardens of the tower were turned into a Victorian cemetery, with the most exotic and glorious gravestones I've seen in a while.
The garden itself was sunken, probably square, and what you see today is a tumbledown, ankle breaking grave yard filled with primroses and violets in spring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckford%27s_Tower
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| Tower in the distance |
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| Part of the slopes of the Lansdown, a steep walk up from the village, but early morning there often would be deer in the fields. |
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| Jumbled gravestones |
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| This is Beckfords grave, mounted on something that looks like a barrow with a ditch. Its rather empty, his wife had died before him and his daughter obviously did'nt want to join him. |
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| These are a favourite because of the detail on the gravestones |
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| The three intrepid photographers being taught by me on how to take interesting photos, not of each other all the time. The camera was brought for the trip to Ghana |
In a rush, so will be back later to comment on this lovely post. Just to let you know you have won an award, if you would like to check out my blog . . .
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