Chastleton House --Chilterns--where croquet became a game

A plaque reminds us that croquet was first established in this splendid house--the best example of pure Jacobean architecture in Britain!

Built in the early 1600's, the owners and subsequent generations were neither nobility nor wealthy, so the house never got altered, or attacked in the Cromwell era and remains today almoat exactly as it was built.

The last occupant (Barbara Clutton-Brock)  also a descendant, only left it in the 1970's, as she could no longer manage it and gave it to the NT. There is a pic--a photo of her reading at a table at 85, when she left.

Although very sparse and dusty, the authenticity of this place really gets to you, as you walk around it.

The set ofpewter plates, the wood carvings, the furniture, fireplaces, stained glass windows, carpets etc etc. There is even an old trunk taken from the Spanish Armada.

There is not even an NT tearoom--nothing has been altered.

We finished with a try at croquet on the original lawn where the rules of the game were first written  out.

Returning to my cousin's home in Aylesbury, Valerie, who drove us there and back,  cooked a lovely tea while Mary and I picked berries and apples from her 5 acre 'garden' a fed a neighbouring horse! We took a long last look at the English countryside....sigh...........