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Published: September 5th 2007
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Jay and I decided we couldn't take looking at another historical bulding this weekend so we went to the Safari Park at Longleat in Wiltshire. Longleat is actually the estate of the Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath. He is 37th on a list of the richest people in Britain. Even so, it must take an enormous amount of money to keep an estate running. Therefore, there are 12 family attractions here, such as an adventure castle, miniature railway, butterfly garden, safari boats, etc. The place is a small scale Disneyland. The management has done a great job with crowd management, and keeping children from getting bored and restless. For example, while we were waiting in line to get on the safari boats, the children could see a great exhibit of meerkats beside our queue. It kept the adults entertained, too.
The safari park is one of those places where the visitors stay inside the car and the animals roam free (relatively free, that is. I could see the wire fences in the distance). You really do get a better view of the animals here than in a zoo. We got some very good photos. In the section of the
park where the rhesus monkeys live there are signs warning of the possibility of damage to your car from the monkeys and a turn off if you choose not to go through that section. We have a rental car that doesn't have an aerial, so we weren't worried. The monkeys jumped on some of the cars in front of us, bent the aerials every way and tore the rubber seal from around the windows on one car. Jay couldn't stop laughing.
I most enjoyed seeing the tigers and wolves. The lions were sleeping and yawning, not inclined to move except to turn over. They are obviously very well fed.
We saw California see lions on the boat ride -something we never expected on an English estate
I confess we did look at the Elizabethan style manor house. The rooms we were allowed to tour have decoration on every wall surface and ceiling. Each room was stuffed with antiques and there was a great deal of artwork, most of it, portraits. A real treat for me was a charcoal drawing from 1913 of the then Marchioness of Bath (see photo) by John Singer Sargent (a famous American expatriate). Sargent
Pacing Tiger
these were the only restless animals in the park. magnificent! really understood grayscale value. The charcoal strokes are confident and well placed (no smudging for him). I sigh in admiration and am not worthy.
The present Marquess of Salisbury is a self-styled artist and author. He looks like an old hippie and seems quite the interesting character. There are several paintings by him and portraits of him in the house. He has painted murals on the walls and ceilings of the private family apartments on the upper floor. Among the murals are illustrations of positions described in the Kama Sutra. He has a website if you care to look. On the website there are also excerpts from the first six volumes of his autobiography.
My favorite part of the house was a pet cemetery in the beautiful garden. There are pet grave stones there that go back a few centuries.
There are some great examples of contemporary sculpture on the estate and the grounds are beautiful- rolling hills with huge ancient trees and foliage in every tint and shade of green.
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judy
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i love the llama and zebra.... what a whimsical smile!