Castle Howard is the setting for both versions of Brideshead Revisited. I was obsessed by the original Brideshead when it was on Masterpiece Theater in the 80's (yes, in high school I was watching Masterpiece...prepping for my days with the Newburyport Period Piece Society) so Castle Howard was on my Must See list.
This is an early porta-potty. It would be on the back of a horse drawn coach and when a traveler needed the facilities they would stop the coach and put it in the road for use. The docent told us that people weren't as shy about bodily functions as they are now and at balls, the ladies would just squat down on something like this to pee right in the middle of the ball room. Everything would be covered by their big flouncy dresses. Why haven't they had a scene like that on Masterpiece Theater?
Is that Aloysius in the chair?
But the inside of the house had quite a bit to entertain us.
There was a room dedicated to the house and family during the war. The house was used as a girls school. There was a big fire and the girls helped save much of the books and furnishings. This Nazi propaganda caught my eye - the influence for Edward Scissorhands perhaps?
This little guy sat quietly under his owner's bus seat the whole ride home.
1 comment:
That dog is freaking me out with his different coloured eyes!
Just wanted to let you know that "STRUWWELHITLER" is a famous piece of British parody from WW2 as it's based on "STRUWWELPETER", a famous but scary children's book from the mid 19th century (Peter is a boy who doesn't believe in personal hygiene, and he becomes so savage looking that none of the other kids want to play with him - it was meant to "educate" kids, I think.... used to scare me! The other stories about table manners etc. are even worse, but it's a real European classic).
So, if anything it's a huge piss take out of Hitler, not a propaganda piece at all. My father has a copy of "Struwwelhitler", I'll try to get my mitts on it to show you one day along with the original story.
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