July 24th 2017- Cerne Abbas; Milton Abbas; Kingston Lacy; Max Gate.

July 24th. Had a lovely drive through the Dorset countryside today as the weather was great. We made our way to Cerne Abbas to see the chalk giant on a hillside. It is a turfcut outline filled with chalk depicting a large naked man with an erection.

From there we went to Milton Abbas to see the rows of thatched cottages - really picturesque.

We thought we wouls have coffee in the local hostelry but we stood for ages at the bar and were ignored so we continued on our way!

 Then we went to Kingston Lacy, a lavish family home, home of the Bankes family, built to resemble an Italian Palace. Lots of paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian and Brueghel.

I really liked the tented bedrooms.

Jim liked these mini cannons.

We had a walk through the grounds which were quite formal and a look at the kitchen garden.


















On our way home we stopped at Max Gate - the house Hardy designed and lived in. It was really interesting and intimate - you could sit down and listen to the guides tell you about Hardy’s life and family. I loved the place. I enjoyed browsing through some of his poetry in his study.