Scotney Castle with Fr Mildew

Down into the Garden of England, via oast houses, beautiful countryside and the A21, which retains the feel of motoring in yesteryear to Scotney Castle.

Met up with Ches ( who knew where everyone else was and what we were up to- always a great boon when you arrive on your own,) Fr Mildew, blog commentors Delia and Dilly Day Dream and several other friendly people. We 'did' the big new house (1837) and then repaired to the walled garden and a big picnic table where we laid out the spread. Thanks to Delia and Dilly Day Dream for lots of lovely food. In answer to the question, 'How similar are people in real life compared to on the interweb?' I'd say pretty similar. (Not sure how that pans out for me. Oh well.)

Fr Mildew entertained us with his commentary on the letters' page of the that publication we don't actually read. (At £2.50 a week, you could be doing lots of entertaining things with the extra £10 a month. Quite a good bottle of wine. That M&S Meal Deal. Give it to Charity...Buy your Mum some flowers....) Then he read us an account of the escape of Fr Blont from Scotney Castle, now a ruin. We viewed it from the hill, where Fr Mildew packed in more story and drew a small crowd of other visitors, as he pointed things out with his stick. Then it was down the hill to find the Priest Hole. We had two possible sites and Delia's torch was great, giving us all an extra view.

The weather was very good by now and Fr Mildew took us to a bridge over looking the Castle where we took some photos. After a walk around the grounds it was time for a cup of tea and more talk before the trip home.

Thanks to Fr Mildew for organising it all and for his very informative and entertaining story-telling.