Yesterday we popped over to Dartington
Hall to have coffee with a couple of friends in the Round House. In
the old days we would have gone to the White Hart but now Dartington
Hall hosts more – and more popular – events they have had to
increase their catering capacity. It is sad to see the White Hart so
changed but the new Round House is delightful.
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| The Gate House. The Roundhouse (see picture below) is to the left. |
We used to go there quite often before
we moved to the other side of Dartmoor but this is the first time
since we came back. Marcia has been to the Cider Press – a shopping
complex and restaurant run by the Dartington Hall Trust – a few
times to meet up with friends but not to up to the hall itself.
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| The entrance to the Great Hall (this and the next picture taken by B Rochard) |
These names should be familiar to you.
Caroline and Prue used to pop over from The Keep and it was in the
White Hart that Jolyon confronted his mother in The Prodigal Wife.
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| You can stay in the rooms overlooking the courtyard. |
The original hall was built at the tail
end of the 14th century by John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon and Duke
of Exeter. He was half brother to Richard II who was deposed by Henry
Bolingbroke – Henry IV – and tried to lead a rebellion to
reinstate Richard. This rebellion failed and John Holland was
executed and his lands, including Dartington, became the property of
the crown. Sir Arthur Champernowne, Queen Elizabeth’s Vice-Admiral
of the West, acquired the Hall in 1559 and the family lived there for
the next three hundred and sixty six years.
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| When the weather is nice there is no better place for lunch than under the canopies outside The White Hart |
When Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst
bought the estate in 1925 the hall and most of the other buildings
were derelict. They met when Leonard was studying agriculture in the
USA at the Cornell University where he was elected to be President of
Cornell’s Cosmopolitan Club (for foreigners). Finding that the club
was burdened by huge debts he embarked on some money-raising
activities which brought him into contact with Dorothy Whitney from
Washington DC.
The Elmhirsts wanted Dartington to
become a centre where the arts could flourish and that, together with
some additional aims, remains true under the ownership and management
of the Dartington Hall Trust. Click here for their web site.
The Ways With Words festival is held
here (Marcia has spoken at that festival a few times) and it is
probable that the artistic influence of Dartington helps to ensure
that Totnes remains to this day to be the most inclusive town I have
ever known – you meet all sorts here and all are welcome.
On the way home we took to the lanes
although we used proper roads going over to ensure we didn’t get
lost which could have made us late. It may sound strange that we can
get lost here but this area is criss-crossed by a multitude of lanes
all of which look much alike. When we lived in Avonwick we used to
buy runner beans grown in four huge greenhouses on a market garden
somewhere in that part. Now, over a decade later, we have been unable
to find it. Even if the market garden has closed down, I am
reasonably certain I would recognise the big bungalow built near the
entrance.
So I make no apologies for getting lost
although, as you well know, we are never really lost. How can we be
when we are to the south of the A38, north of the sea and somewhere
between Exeter and Plymouth. Not lost – just a bit wumbled which
inevitably reminds me of Roly the unwumbler in Echoes of the
Dance.
