Photos from Hatfield House last Friday.

This is me standing in front of a large tree with interesting bark at Hatfield Hous

View from the dining room at Hatfield House tourist area with tourist shops, etc.



Formal gardens at the back of  the banquet hall which is all that remains of the old castle which originally was four buildings surrounding a courtyard (what you see here).  It was torn down in order to build Hatfield House.  The old house was where Henry VIII's daughter Elizabeth lived as a girl and teenager before she became queen.

Ralph standing on the little square in the touristy area outside Hatfield House.

This is the banquet hall of the old house where Elizabeth I, queen of England, grew up.  She was sitting under a tree when a messenger came to tell her that she was queen.  Strange to think of her here way out in the country not knowing that the king had died and that she was soon to become queen.  She called her first council meeting here in the great hall.  I wish the photo weren't crooked.  A wonderful room as seen from a second floor room with glass windows between it and the hall.



Hatfield House from what I surmised to actually be the back of the house.  The Cecil who built this house, is the person who brought Queen Elizabeth I the news that she was queen.  She immediately had confidence in him and soon made him her chief advisor (not the official title, sorry)  Thus he continued.  Titles were bestowed.  When he died, she had such confidence in his son that she made him her advisor.  So this family was highly influential.    Queen Victoria once stayed here and, for her visit, tapestries were specially designed, crafted, and hung.  An interesting fact for dog lovers is there are tall (five feet?) gates at the bottom of the stairway which leads to the bedrooms upstairs.  Those gates were installed for the purpose of keeping the dogs out of the bedrooms.  There is a lot of history here.  I've just touched on it. 

Ralph under a tree passing into a hedge-walled sculpture garden

The great hall of the old house as seen from the front.

An ancient arbor at Hatfield's gardens

Couldn't resist photographing this gorgeous flower

Ralph at the back of the old house next to the formal garden

I don't know what kind of flower this is and it is so lush and full that I had to get a photo.  I resembles an iris