A Phylogeny of the Dingleberries, Chap. 8
The House
Main -- House -- History -- Cornwall -- Getting There -- On the Road -- The Roads -- London -- The Far West -- Boring Details -- Updates
So, if you're going to have a highly inconvenient house party, the choice of a good house lies at the root of the whole proposition. For this affair we have rented Godolphin House, which is owned and kept up by a British organization called the National Trust. If you're an American, you have perhaps seen some National Trust properties on PBS shows like "Treasures of the Trust" and that sort of thing. Most National Trust houses you're likely to think of are open for public tours and viewing, as is Godolphin House from time to time, but most of the time Godolphin House is rented out as a large "holiday cottage."
Godolphin House was owned, not surprisingly, by the Godolphin family, known for their fondness for both gods and dolphins. The Godolphins were important in British history -- the most famous probably being Sidney Godolphin, who was, among other things, Lord High Treasurer during the reign of Queen Anne. Sidney Godolphin was a friend of John Churchill, the First Duke of Marlborough -- military genius behind the War of the Spanish Succession and ancestor of Winston Churchill. This means, of course, a guaranteed spot in a BBC historical drama, so here you go: The First Churchills
Godolphin House was built in the Tudor period. How come none of the "Tudor" houses in Seattle were? We don't know, but advertising laws perhaps need reforming. The Tudor period is named after Henry Tudor, a fellow whose Welsh granddad was married to the ex-wife of Henry V. In those days, a shock of frizzy orange hair and a habit of gripping cats wasn't enough to make you leader of the free world, so Henry Tudor had to elevate this somewhat dubious claim to the throne by marrying Elizabeth of York (thus closing up the York/Lancaster divide responsible for the Wars of the Roses) and by killing Richard III (you know, "now is the winter of our discontent." That guy. After he put out a hit on the "princes in the Tower," he was missing for a while until they found him under a parking lot in Leicester, like Jimmy Hoffa). One crowning later, he was Henry VII, and the Tudor dynasty, responsible for Henry VIII, Edward VI, "Bloody" Mary, and Elizabeth I was born. The house is, accordingly, a bit old. Whenever we ask if the bathrooms have running water, the National Trust makes uncomfortable faces and changes the subject.
For more details on Godolphin House, see the National Trust listing.
The house is supplied with bedding, bath linens, and dishes and miscellaneous cooking equipment. It has a clothes washer and dryer, too, so no need to hunt down a laundromat (or, as they call it, a "laundrette"). We will try to keep the kitchen well stocked with food. We're vegetarians, so won't be buying meat; but if you want to buy it and bring it in, feel free. There is also said to be free wi-fi in the house, which was singularly useless for the first five hundred years of the house's existence, but a very forward-looking design consideration.
Directions? Heck, we haven't been there either, yet. But Godolphin Cross is about five miles north of Helston, and is very small. The house is accessed through the gardens, which should be signposted and are open to the public. More general information on getting there is here. It's in Cornwall; if you don't see pirates, you're not there yet.