Leeds Castle, Part II

Welcome back to Leeds Castle in Kent, England!   Check out Part I of the tour if you missed it last week.  My tour of this lovely castle was the high point of my entire trip to England back in February.  Isn’t this hedge maze absolutely amazing?

When Lady Baillie purchased it in the 1920′s, she updated many of the rooms in Leeds Castle.   However, some were preserved to honor its history.  The Leeds Foundations have restored these rooms to what they were centuries earlier.   Let’s start with a peek at a few of those medieval castle spaces, like Henry VIII’s banquet hall (he purchased the castle in the 1500′s for Katherine of Aragon).

The hand-hewn ceiling beams in this room were unbelievable.

 

This is the restored bedchamber of Katherine of Aragon.  It doesn’t really appeal to me, but you gotta love that fireplace.

This room was used as a nursery for a royal heir during medieval times.  Royal babies spent most of their times with wet-nurses and nannies,  and would go months without even seeing there parents!

Those rooms are interesting, but I prefer the rooms Lady Baillie renovated in the 1920′s.  So let’s take a look at one of her sunny and colorful guest rooms.  This room and other guest rooms was slept in by all kinds of famous houseguests, including the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, Douglas Fairbanks (Sr. and Jr.), Eroll Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, and James Stewart.  The ceiling beams in this room are painted a creamy white, and the vintage wallpaper is french blue.

This is the yellow drawing room at Leeds Castle with it’s matching sofas and nice, lumpy ottoman between.  Very formal, but very liveable.

How amazing would it be to look out over your own moat every time you walked down a hallway?

This dining room is quite different from Henry VIII’s banquet room, no?  The walls are the lightest mint green and the chairs are upholstered all in cream to match the elaborate trim.

This wood panelled room is a bit more masculine than many of Lady Baillie’s rooms.  I suppose her husband, Sir Adrian, needed a place to hang out with the guys.

Sadly, most of my photographs of the library at Leeds Castle came out too dark.  But here is a corner of the room that shows all the glorious books and the beautiful gilding on the trim and paneling.

I hope you enjoyed my tour of Leeds Castle.   I think living in a castle would be divine!  Except, of course, for the cold drafts and the rats.

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