Berkeley Castle

On Thursday, I drove over to Berkeley Castle, which was only 8 miles away.  I wasn't even aware that this existed when planning my trip. I found out about it while talking to the estate agent and Lady Mander on Tuesday morning.  Lady Mander is friends with the Berkeleys and thought it very amusing that I would be touring the castle during the day and she would be dining with the family that same night.              

I was not allowed to take any pictures inside, and I somehow lost the pics I took outside so I scanned these photos from the souvenir booklet that I bought.

Early painting of castle

It was pretty amazing to be in this room.

This is the other side of the room pictured above. This room is probably where Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night's Dream was first performed.

This is Queen Eliz. I bedspread, it all embroidered in silk and gold threads.

The legend about why the bedspread was left behind. I bought the silk scarf, below.

I added this picture because what looks like red wallpaper on the walls is actually hand embroidered wool which was part of a tent made for watching King Henry VIII joust in France with the french King. It was later used to cover the walls of the master bedroom, then pieced together on these walls. There was an elderly British woman on the tour with her daughter, she was obviously a needle-artist like me and we together went ga-ga over the bedspread and the wall covering. Her daughter had to keep saying "come on mum, keep up"!

Isn't this so romantic looking?