Maggie's Farm

Bird Dog ... We love these small family museums too. One of my fondest memories of London is the Duke of Wellington's house, which has been turned into an intriguing reflection of the times in which he lived and the various tastes he had developed. Old Hookey was a great General, as you know, and was someone who, time after time, pulled victory out of defeat. The ladies loved him, too, and he them. I know you know all this, but the evening before the battle of Waterloo, one of the English ladies who had followed the army to the Continent, gave an elaborate ball for Wellington and his staff. Most of the officers, or many of them at least, went directly from the ball to the battlefield, many of them to die there. As the Duke said in later years, "it was a close run thing, and we lost so many fine young men."
When we were at Asprey House, we saw the dining room in which Wellington held a dinner party every year for those of his command staff who had survived the battle. Evidently, dinner parties like that were rather much endurance contests, going on for many hours, so they had one sideboard equipped with chamber pots so the gentlemen didn't have to wander all over the house to find a place to relieve themselves.

One of the little vignettes which brought the era to life for me.

Marianne