Adults only – sampling southern England COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Whoa. Did you know this place had such a haunted past when you first looked into it? As long as the ghosts stay away from the guest areas, then it's OK!!

I knew it had a haunted past, that's why I refused to go for a historic room, as guests have reported some unexpected visitors in those, shall we say?

[pamcarey]

Wow, what a story about the midwife and the baby!!


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[cubfancolleen]

Yikes, those are some scary stories. Don't blame you for passing on sleeping in a historic room.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Wow, what a story about the midwife and the baby!!

I know.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Yikes, those are some scary stories. Don't blame you for passing on sleeping in a historic room.

When I booked this, the woman I spoke to told me that she stayed there and when she did, someone came down to reception, and asked to be moved, because they'd had a spooky experience... I was so glad that I hadn't gone for a historic room!

[SuperDave]

Those were some incredible rooms in the house. Especially, the former smoking room with all the great artwork! Some of those historic rooms to look quite spooky! Some strange stories behind all the history here! Thanks for sharing them.

[Cam22]

The paintings in the Dutch parlour are outstanding. I think I could stay there for hours look over all the art. Interesting story of the babies and the hauntings. The chapel is beautiful in an austere way.

[KMB733]

What an interesting haunted history!! It really has me wondering who was the woman who gave birth to the child and why they burned the child. I can't say I blame you for not wanting to stay in one of the historic rooms.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by KMB733

What an interesting haunted history!! It really has me wondering who was the woman who gave birth to the child and why they burned the child. I can't say I blame you for not wanting to stay in one of the historic rooms.

I'm amazed that to this day, they still don't know who the woman was. I guess in a way it's nice that there are still some mysteries and we don't know everything...

[xwewhisper]

What a dark and fascinating history!

[Colexis Mom]

Interesting history! Beautiful place though!

[chezp]

Tuesday 6 May – part five: what a choice for dinner!

We headed into this corridor, which had displays from the Roman Villa on the grounds. We’re going to have to get over there and have a look at it, as apparently it’s open to everyone…



Then we went into the Long Gallery, which was very impressive. The coat of arms in here belongs to the Darrell family.



We got some great views of the garden from here as well…



Then it was down the Jerusalem staircase. No-one knows why it’s called that, but this is also reputed to be haunted, firstly by a black dog. When people go to stroke it, their hands go right through it. Then there are also the Parliamentarian soldiers. Apparently Peter de Savary’s butler, who knew this place like the back of his hand, felt someone push him down these stairs, and he ended up with a broken collarbone.



With that, the tour was over, but wow, what a great tour it had been, and superb value for just £3 per person. I certainly learnt a lot from it, and it was good to get to know the house and its history a bit better.

We headed back to our room and had some down time, watching some more of our favourite TV programmes off the laptop. How did we ever live before we had this facility?

Just before 3:30pm, I headed back to the leisure centre for my full body massage with hot stones. My therapist was Emma, who was very pleasant, although she had a very different way of doing things to my usual therapist at home. I’m always fascinated by that, given that presumably they’re all taught in a similar way?

I have to say I’m very glad I opted for the full body, as opposed to just the back and shoulders, as I get those done regularly, so I didn’t feel a huge amount of relief from that, but boy, my legs and arms certainly did! I think in the future I may have to switch back to doing more full body massages, as they are obviously very good for me.

When I came out, I settled up. It’s very weird to have to remember to take money or cards with you, as they don’t automatically set up room charges here. You can arrange to have it done, but to be honest, we weren’t planning on buying that much, so we didn’t bother, and it worked out well, as I could charge it to my own account, rather than the joint, as I was the one who got all the enjoyment out of it.

As I walked back to the room, I saw one of the coaches returning, which had taken people over to Salisbury for market day. Been there, done that yesterday! During the massage, Emma had told me the hotel was pretty quiet this week, and in fairness, it did feel reasonably quiet during the day, with everyone gone, although breakfasts and dinners certainly didn’t feel that quiet. I hate to think what it’s like when the place is full.

When we got back to the room, I finally managed to do something I’ve been waiting to do for ages – I booked our return back to Disney World! There’s a heck of a back story to this, and now is not the time to share it, but hopefully by the time we get to the pre-trip report, I can share it all with you. We’re booked in for just over two weeks in late February/early March 2015, as those were the only dates I could get reward flights, and bearing in mind, it cost me a total of £750 (c $1,240) for the two of us in Premium Economy, I didn’t want to miss out on getting those. To put that in perspective, we can expect to pay more like £2,000 - £2,500 (c. $3,300 - $4,125) for the two of us if we’re paying cash. At least that’s done, and it’s a weight off my mind, as I didn’t want to miss out on those Reward flights.

Just before we headed down for dinner, the heavens opened outside, and the rain that had been threatening all day finally arrived. Well, we can live with that, so long as we’re inside, and not out in it.



When we got down to dinner, I was very impressed with the menu. There were three things I could easily have opted for for both appetiser and entrée. For appetiser, I could’ve gone for the carrot and coriander soup or the goat’s cheese and beetroot salad, but the second I saw the lobster, crayfish and champagne bavarois with red pepper, olive and chive dressing, and brown bread crisp, I was sold – and so was Mark, as we both got the same thing.



I loved the taste of this with the brown bread crisp, but not with the dressing, which to me totally dominated the main part of the dish. I know Mark didn’t feel as strongly about it as I did.

For main course, I had a similar dilemma. I could’ve had the ratatouille, cherry tomato and mozzarella tart or beetroot, butternut squash and red onion lasagne, but in the end, I went for the salmon with a lemon and herb crust with asparagus, tomato and red pepper salsa. The flavours in this dish went together perfectly. The only shame was the asparagus, as the lower parts were very hard to cut, which I absolutely hate.



Mark went up to the carvery, and just like Barbara and Majorie, he was going to go for the turkey. Now the turkey was masquerading as chicken… as our server said it was a “small” change to the menu – i.e. there’s no chicken, it’s now turkey. Apparently when they got up there, the turkey didn’t exactly look appetising, so they all went for the slow-roasted beef brisket instead, and I heard nothing but good things about it.


Apparently none of my photos of Mark’s buffet food came out well…

When it came to dessert, I asked what the chef’s selection of the day was, and apparently there were two chefs as the choices were fresh fruit salad or crème brulee. Mark opted for the latter, and it didn’t turn up looking how you’d expect it to look. Thank goodness I didn’t order it, as it had large chunks of peach in – not mentioned on the menu!



I went for the panettone bread and butter pudding with almond custard, and wow, this was good. I was very good I opted for this, and not the crème brulee.



Just a quick word here about the wine… remember last night it was plonked down in the ice bucket for us? Well tonight, it was a huge improvement. The guy brought it over to us, then said he’d bring wine glasses over and pour it for us. We were all a bit sceptical after last night, but he was good as his word, and did indeed pour it. What a shame the rest of the service wasn’t any better. I asked for some more water when the wine turned up, and the guy said he’d find our server for us. Let’s just we all got our top-ups about half an hour later…

Popham Restaurant:

Appetiser 8 8½
Entrée 9 9
Dessert 9 8½
Service 7 7
Atmosphere 8 8

Average score: 8.20

Once we were done eating, we headed back up to the room. Thankfully, as Barbara had reminded us at dinner, there was another programme on terrestrial TV (meaning we could watch it here) at 9:00pm, so we retired to watch that, before heading to bed.

The weather today was dry and more cloudy today with temperatures in the mid 50s.
The best thing today was the rifle shooting!
The worst thing today was the rain later on in the day.
The funniest thing today was me scoring so well at the rifle shooting!
Today we tried taking the historical house tour
And the result was it was fascinating and we learnt a lot from it.
The most magical moment today was finally being able to say I’ve fired a gun!

Next: it’s stopped raining!

[cubfancolleen]

Dinner looked better tonight, in terms of presentation (well, maybe not Mark's dessert). Too bad service was still lacking.
How creepy would it be to pet a dog and have your hand move through it?! Gives me the chills just to imagine.

[num1DVCfan]

Wow, more haunted areas. I think I'd be a bit creeped out if I tried to pet a dog and my hand went right through. Dinner looked good and congrats on the rewards flight!

[Colexis Mom]

Congrats on booking the trip to Disney! Glad you enjoyed your massage! Dinner sounded like a bit of improvement tonight!