Day 2 of my exploration of the Hudson Valley and it's stately home time. The Hudson Valley riverbanks were where the rich and famous of the 1800's built their mansions and summer houses. Names like the Rockerfellers and the Vanderbilts all came up the Hudson and today I got the train to Tarrytown and visited two very different houses.
Firstly, Lyndhurst, a gothic revival house built by a former mayor of New York but eventually owned by the Goulds, a major railroad family. The house is now looked after by the "National Trust for Historic Preservation". The guide was very good and particularly amused by my presence asking me why I was there, with a "Haven't you got enough of your own big houses to look at?" However there are three major differences between this American stately home and those in England.
1) Most of the interior decoration is fake - marble and stone are actually plaster painted to look like marble and stone, wood might be wood but a cheaper wood painted with a different grain to look correct or again it might be painted plaster. Even bronze isn't actually bronze. It was apparently considered tacky to flaunt your wealth and have the real thing.
2) Lyndhurst has a drawing room, library, dining room etc. but being American also has a restored bowling alley in the grounds ....... come on Chartwell you really must get one of those!
3) And this is the most important difference. No tea shop! Why? The United States is not some third world country. Where's an Englishman to get a cream tea on a Sunday afternoon if there's no tea shop?
A few minutes walk down the road and I came to my second historic house of the day, very different, much smaller and much more homely. Sunnyside.
Sunnyside was the home of the author Washington Irvine. If you have not heard of him he wrote "Rip van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" amongst others and was famous on both sides of the Atlantic. I've bought a copy of his collection of tales to read as I had heard the names of his stories but that's all. The guide said that he is no longer taught in American schools either.
Anyway the guided tour was very good, the house lovely but once again, a gift shop yes but no tea shop! So lets look at what the problem is here. They have tea in the States - check, Homebaking is very big here so scones are not a problem - check, Jam is available and good quality - check. So it has to be the clotted cream.
So readers there are two important things that need to be addressed. Firstly can someone please contact Theresa May and ensure that the primary and most important trade deal with the USA post BREXIT has to involve the export of clotted cream. Secondly Boris needs to be dispatched to this side of the Atlantic, as a matter of urgency, to teach the Americans to put the jam on the scone before the cream. I'm sure that with these two tasks fulfilled the "Special Relationship" will remain special for many years to come.
PS If anyone is planning a trip to New York please do, I urge you, factor in a day to get out of the city and visit the Hudson Valley. It's really worth it.
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| Oh and I saw a dear just 24 miles from Manhattan |
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