Wimpole Hall and Anglesey Abbey

Across the 4th and 5th of January, our family visited the historic estates of Wimpole Hall and Anglesey Abbey. The first house we visited, Wimpole Hall, was a vast Stuart estate built in 1640. It reman she the biggest house in Cambridgeshire. We drove up from our house in Cambridge, through the countryside, to the immense and extravagant stables, with a tall clock tower and handsome red brick walls. We walked through the "naturalised" gardens of the estate, designed by prominent landscape designer "Capability" Brown to resemble a natural environment. Soon we arrived at the Home Farm, still in use to this day. We had visited the farm many times last time we were staying in Cambridge, and had celebrated my sister Lydia's second birthday here. She didn't remember anything,  but loved the farm nonetheless. The farm had horses, cattle, sheep, ducks, rabbits, and pigs. There were even some tiny piglets in the sty, that everyone found very cute. After visiting the farm we walked down to the stables again to meet our friends the Gathercoles for a walk through the estate's grounds, up to the folly and back. A folly was an expensive building built for ornamentation with no real purpose. In this case, and in many others, it was an imitation of a gothic style ruin. It was positioned on a hill overlooking the Hall, offering great views of the whole estate. The walk took half an hour, and at the end, we played hide and seek amongst the fake ruins. Soon it was time to leave, and we had hot chocolate at the cafe near the estate's chapel.
The next day we visited another grand estate, Anglesey Abbey, the 12th century priory, that was purchased by Thomas Hobson in 1600, and converted into a grand country house for his son in law. Thomas Hobson has been remembered in history as the origin of the phrase, Hobson's Choice, a so called "Free choice", where there is only one option available. The man used to take guests to his stable, and offer them the horse nearest the door, or no horse. It is unsurprising what the guests chose. Upon arrival we walked through the grounds to the wildlife garden, with a "nature playground" for Lydia, and a bird hide. After Lydia had climbed around on the logs and treehouse, we walked to the birdhide. At first we only saw ordinary birds, like robins and blue tits, but then Rebecca spotted a small mammal in the bushes across the frozen pond. I quickly identified it as a stoat, a small, but ferocious hunter resembling a large weasel. We were very excited, since none of us had seen a stoat before, and they were infamously difficult to observe. We watched it scurry around the vegetation for about 5 minutes, before it vanished into the undergrowth. On the walk back we visited the beautiful winter garden, and historic Lode mill, that still produces flour. Finally we had hot chocolate and scones at the cafe, before leaving mid-afternoon.