Friday night quiz

[JoceAndChris]

The gateway is one entrance to Burghley Park and House, Stamford. It's pretty much the first thing you see when you pull off the A1 into Stamford, before the splendid Georgian vista of St Martin's and the High St opens up (I got married in St Martin's- and just had that opportunistic photo taken outside the entrance to Burghley house). And yes, Middlemarch was filmed in Stamford and loads of stuff has been filmed in Burghley House, including Pride and Prejudice with that dreadful Keira Knightley.

It's one of those landmarks that catches my breath every time I see it as it reminds me so potently of being dropped off at boarding school every week. And I'll leave to your imagination the kind of stuff we got up to in Burghley Park (which was right next to the boarding house and was accessible at night if you didn't mind hopping through a window and climbing through a hedge).

The house in my post above is the exquisite Stragglethorpe Hall in Stragglethorpe, near Lincoln. (I made my poor guests schlep about). I want this house very badly indeed, and might have to murder off my family to get it. It used to offer itself as a B&B or wedding venue, but it's changed hands now, so you won't be able to go there until it's mine and I invite you all for tea.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

That'd be the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct over the river Dee - just up the road from me, and one of the most marvellous sites in the world. That Thomas Telford was a clever chap.

The joint of the troughs and the masonry were waterproofed with a mixture of "Welsh flannel impregnated with lead dipped in boiling sugar and then set in mortar of limewater and the blood of 1700 oxen" according to a plaque at the foot of the aqueduct.

Hopefully some good news for a Wednesday morning:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/8115190.stm

At least they wouldn't be able to fit uPVC windows to the aqueduct if it is made a World Heritage Site! :wink:

 

[Feltwell]

with that dreadful Keira Knightley.

Ohh no, no no no, I wouldn't call her dreadful. Her acting you can call what you like, and I will admit she is a bit skinny, but I wouldn't call her dreadful. :wink: :lol:

At least in Pirates of Caribbean Mrs F had Johnny Depp to lust after, as I had Keira.......

 

[Penners]

what lies behind?

From the look of the groping that's going on, I'd guess it's his hand.

 

[Hatster]

Oh, no wonder I half-recognised it but got it totally confused!

Since Friday is nearly over, I'll submit a fairly easy one myself:

What is this, how (in a metaphorical sense) would you get there, and where had the architect been to inspire him?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The Gate of Honour at Caius College, Cambridge and through the Gates of Humility and Virtue, and Padua. (I only know because I wrecked the rest of Caius with this): - about which I could tell many tales, but alas...

 

[Hatster]

I knew it was too easy for you lot!

But you have to put me out of my suspense, Gareth - don't tell me you came up with the Fellows Dining Room in Caius, did you???? It is certainly :? unique :?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I knew it was too easy for you lot!

But you have to put me out of my suspense, Gareth - don't tell me you came up with the Fellows Dining Room in Caius, did you???? It is certainly :? unique :?

I was working for Simpson while it was being done. I have had less, erm, demanding, employers. But the final straw was the cast bronze furniture that he had painted over after it arrived because it didn't look sufficiently like bronze. The chairs were intended to be stacking but took two men to lift, and once three had been stacked they started to go through the floor, so we designed a "chariot" for them to be trundled around on, the wheels of which dug up the parquet.
(Actually, the final straw was winning the competition for the Queens Gallery at Buckingham Palace and realising that once Caius was over, we'd be starting the whole nightmare again, not going back to a year or so of the relatively undemanding country house racket)