A day out.

On a glorious sunny day I went with other Friend's Volunteers of the RA to visit a splendid country house-Stonor near Henley-on-Thames Oxfordshire. Its been in the same family for the past 850 years give or take. Lord and Lady Camoys and the Stonor family opened up their house a few years ago to help pay the bills. Set in the most beautiful Chiltern countryside with commanding views of the surrounding deer park. The house was built-and added to over the years-since building started in 1190. There is a medieval Catholic chapel adjacent to the house-that is still used today by the family. There is a grand library that is considered one of the best collections of rare Catholic literature in this country. The house has had a great history associated with the Camoys and their religion. Later in the day we went on to Cockham on Thames the birth place of the painter Sir Stanley Spencer. Cockham is one of those fine reserved English towns in a fad setting on the Thames. After a jolly good lunch we set off with a guide visiting the various haunts the Spencer went to as a boy and adult. He thought that this place was the most wonderful in England. He described his childhood as idyllic and very happy. Born in 1891 he was educated initially by his elder sisters-he later went on to study art at the Slade School in London from 1908-12. During the war he was asked to became an official war artist in 1940. I think his art is so specific of place and captures the very essence of Cockham all those years ago. Many have a religious theme running through them and were at the time thought of as controversial. Especially the more explicit sexual ones. After a lively private life he died in 1959. We also had the opportunity to see the Stanley Spencer Gallery where many of his works of art art hung in a delightful setting-an old Methodist church. After all this culture we had afternoon tea and scones. A good day out!