A perfect day out in Castle Howard, North Yorkshire

To the British, Brideshead Revisited is a very famous TV drama, ranking as top 10 on the list of the 100 Greatest British TV Programmes. It is a story about a wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion, and Castle Howard in the glorious rural idyll of Yorkshire has been used to be iconic scenes. 

As Castle Howard is near North Yorkshire, I took one hour bus#181 from York City centre to visit it this Thursday. In fact, ‘Castle’ Howard is not a real castle which is typically built to against attack with thick walls but is a British country house with extensive and diverse gardens.

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This stately home is owned by the Howard family in 1566 and started to constructed and designed by the architect John Vanbrugh for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle in 1699. The site of Howard Castle was once the ruined Henderskelfe Castle and took over 100 years to complete all the buildings, spanning the lifetimes of three Earls.

The South Front

Castle Howard is John Vanbrugh’s masterstroke ranking as the building of Yorkshire's finest country house.

The main building is a Baroque structure with two symmetrical wings.

Inside the house, through the long and narrow hallways which are the key feature of this house, there are different types of room. All the decorations display how the Howard family lived their noble lives in the past. All the decorations display how the Howard family lived their noble lives in the past.

The dinning room

The drawing room

The Reading room

The Chapel is decorated with work by Pre-Raphaelite artists such as William Morris

There are several parks outside the house and the map says that farmland makes up over 6,000 acres of the Castle Howard Estate (13,000 acres). Therefore, I did not spend too much time indoors; instead, it is better to take a long walk to see the surrounding garden and grounds. As I stepped out, the most attracting is Atlas Fountain behind the house within the centre of an English landscape park. There is also a beautiful lake on each side of the castle. 

Atlas Fountain

Temple of the four winds.

There is also a beautiful lake on each side of the castle.

Lake in the North

Lake in the South

Lake in the South

A day out in Castle Howard, I indulged myself in fresh air, nature, and showy yellow, beige and white daffodils everywhere. 

 

It is really a nice place to take a long walk, while time passed too fast, and the estate is too large to stroll through all the area. 

對於很多英國人來說，Brideshead Revisited是一部非常有名的電視劇，在100個最偉大的英國電視節目名單中排名前10。 這是一個富有的英國天主教徒生活在富麗堂皇的豪宅中的故事，而城堡Howard在約克郡美麗的農村田園詩中,被用來作為標誌性的場景。

由於Howard城堡位於北約克郡附近，本週四我從約克市中心乘坐了一小時181路巴士前往參觀。 事實上，Howard “城堡”並不是一座真正為了防止厚厚的牆壁而建造的城堡，而是英國的一座擁有廣泛多樣花園的鄉村別墅。

這座莊嚴的房子於1566年由Howard家族擁有，並於1699年由建築師約翰·凡布魯（John Vanbrugh）為卡萊爾3世伯爵建造和設計。Howard城堡的遺址曾經是被毀壞的亨德斯凱爾夫城堡，花了100年的時間完成所有建築，跨越三個伯爵的壽命。

Howard城堡是John Vanbrugh的主要作品，是約克郡最好的鄉間別墅的建築。主樓是巴洛克式建築，有兩個對稱的側翼。在房子內部，通過這個房子的主要特點-狹長的走廊，有幾個功能不同的房間。 所有的裝飾品都展示了霍華德家族過去如何過著高尚的生活。

在房子外面有幾個公園，地圖上說光農地就占所有面積(1,3000英畝)中的6,000英畝。所以我沒有在室內花太多時間，反而最好是長時間散步去看周圍的花園和庭院。我一走出去, 最吸引人的是阿特拉斯噴泉，它位於房子後面的英國風景公園中心。城堡兩側還各有一個美麗的湖泊。

在Howard城堡度過一天，我沉浸在清新的空氣，大自然，到處都是艷麗的黃色，米色和白色水仙花。 這是一個很好的散步的好地方，而時間過得太快了，房地產太大了，實在無法漫步整個地區。