rosie and i love to visit stately homes and today we went to a really interesting one called Trerice near Newquay, parts dating back to elizabethan times - incredibly, there is a very large mullioned window in the great hall with some panes going back to the 16th century! many of the panes were shattered by tests for concorde in the 70's - i can't even imagine the frustration and horror the people managing this house must have felt to see 400-year-old panes of glass destroyed by a sonic boom. there were some cool hands-on activities like picking up a shirt of mail (links of metal worn as protection in a war) - almost impossible to pick up even the smaller one (at least 20 pounds) and the idea of wearing one for weeks at a time was scary (of course they didn't bother with showering or bathing) - we then bought some neat stuff in the gift shop and went off for lunch
we ate at a place called the beach hut, which is underneath jamie oliver's restaurant '15' - kind of like chez panisse vs. cafe panisse in berkeley - we had delicious seafood (scallops for rose, mussels for me) and i had a cream tea for dessert, since i have to have at least one of those while in cornwall
we then visited rose's mum mary and left her to watch the rest of 'neighbours'
