Adults only – sampling southern England COMPLETED - Page 20 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I take it nothing came up? I just did a quick Google search and nothing jumped out at me...
Well, it popped up with something called Time Team: Henry VIII's Lost Palaces, but didn't give any further information. Nothing interesting like a Jane Austen movie or Downton Abbey!
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Well, it popped up with something called Time Team: Henry VIII's Lost Palaces, but didn't give any further information. Nothing interesting like a Jane Austen movie or Downton Abbey!
I guess Time Team came and found one of Henry VIII's Lost Palaces then. I don't know if you have it over there or an equivalent, but it's essentially an archaeological dig and they show what they uncover.
What an impressive estate with lovely gardens! I like the statuary, too. We have a chiming clock that Luke gave me 30 years ago. I love it, but I've had those nights where I here it chime every hour and half hour. Not so fun!
What an impressive estate with lovely gardens! I like the statuary, too. We have a chiming clock that Luke gave me 30 years ago. I love it, but I've had those nights where I here it chime every hour and half hour. Not so fun!
Monday 5 May – part two: people really need warning about that?
As it was about time for the house to open, we headed that way…
We stopped off first to visit the laundry…
I find it worrying that they even have to put signs up like this…
Surely you’d think this would be self explanatory?
We headed round to the front entrance of the house…
… and inside. The entrance hall was a bit bizarre. It felt as if it was made up with a mixture of different things…
To give you some background to this place, Kingston Lacy was home to the Bankes family for over 300 years. In the 17th century, Sir Ralph Bankes commissioned Roger Pratt, an architect he met while in Rome, to build what the National Trust information described as “a respectable family seat on the estate.” It was the starting of what we see today. It underwent significant alterations in the 19th century by Sir Charles Barry, who later built the Houses of Parliament. When the National Trust were gifted the estate, it was one of the largest ever given to them. The Bankes by then owned large swathes of the countryside, including Studland, where we were yesterday. In total, it came to more than 16,000 acres of land.
The first room you come to is the audit room, so named because William John Bankes used it to transact all the estate business after 1834.
Then we headed up the first set of stairs (and trust me, there were a lot of these in the house! )…
The view to the parterre garden outside..
The first room on this level you come to is the library, which was very impressive. Many of the 1,600 books on display were acquired by the family during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The keys you can see above the fireplace are the 31 keys to Corfe Castle, which was the original home of the Bankes family. I know, hard life, right? Dame Mary Bankes, whose statue you saw on the staircase leading up here, was allowed to keep the keys as a mark of respect from her Parliamentary opponents after organising the defence and withstanding two sieges during the English Civil War. The castle finally fell in 1646 and was then looted, before being blown up to prevent it being used by the Royalists.
Next we headed into the Drawing Room, which was redesigned in the 1830s, copying the ceiling rom Inigo Jones House, Lees Court in Kent. Despite the fact that’s our home county, I am ashamed to say I’ve never heard of the place.
This photo is of King Edward VII, who didn’t have the greatest of times when he visited Kingston Lacy. Apparently he fell down a rabbit hole on the estate and unlike Alice, managed to sprain his ankle.
Then you go into the dining room, complete with the dining table all laid up ready for dinner.
William John’s organ dominates this room…
… as do the beautiful four pairs of double doors, all carved in boxwood. They were absolutely exquisite.
As you leave the dining room, you see some beautiful 19th century candelabras, which were presented to Henry Bankes by the people of Dorset in 1831. They commemorate his opposition to the Reform Bill, which proposed dramatic changes to the electorate.
Next: I bet their friends wanted to visit all the time!
What an amazing place! Quite lavish - and I guess they were believers in using antlers in all of their decorating, weren't they?
So, have you now looked up the property in Kent, and are there plans yet to visit?
Wow, the inside is just as impressive as the outside. How funny that you found out something new about Kent!
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I don't know if you have it over there or an equivalent, but it's essentially an archaeological dig and they show what they uncover.
We have a chiming clock that Luke gave me 30 years ago. I love it, but I've had those nights where I here it chime every hour and half hour. Not so fun! 
I'm sure the pictures don't do it justice! 
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