点评:Leith Hill Place – This is the childhood home of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The drive there was crazy—the forest canopy was so dense that at times it felt like we were driving in the middle of the night. Also, the lanes were quite narrow at times that it felt like we were back in Devon. We found the parking lot and walked through a rhododendron forest that had been planted in the late 1800s by Caroline Wedgwood, who was a botanist, the eldest sister of Charles Darwin, and the grandmother of Ralph Vaughan Williams!
The house was simple but lovely. I’m not sure the National Trust knows quite what to do with it, which is unfortunate. They’ve turned most of the house into art exhibition areas. So there was some modern art in the upstairs rooms. I enjoyed the largest installation—a long curved ‘house’ that you could look into and see forestscapes and, through the clever employment of mirrors, your partners eyeball looking into the other end. I’m just not sure if temporary art exhibits are enough of a draw to keep it open. I think they should restore it to what it would have looked like when Caroline Wegewood lived there and make it simply a typical NT property. They could even have one room fully dedicated to RVW since they do have his piano, and have the rest of the house Wedgwood-related. The other unique thing about this site is that they are the only NT site where the café is run by local volunteers who bake everything in house! So we got a slice of cake and a cheese scone. They were tasty.
翻译:利斯山庄——这是拉尔夫·沃恩·威廉姆斯的童年故居。开车去那里简直是疯了——茂密的森林,有时感觉像是在半夜开车。而且,车道有时很窄,感觉就像回到了德文郡。我们找到了停车场,穿过一片杜鹃花林,这片树林是由植物学家卡罗琳·韦奇伍德在19世纪末种植的,她是查尔斯·达尔文的姐姐,也是拉尔夫·沃恩·威廉姆斯的祖母!
房子简朴而可爱。我不确定国民托管组织是否知道该如何处理它,这很遗憾。他们把房子的大部分地方都改造成了艺术展区。所以楼上的房间里有一些现代艺术作品。我很喜欢最大的装置——一个长长的弯曲的“房子”,你可以从里面看到森林景观,通过巧妙的镜子,你伴侣的眼球可以望向另一端。我只是不确定临时艺术展览是否足以吸引人们继续开放。我觉得他们应该把它恢复到卡罗琳·韦奇伍德居住时的样子,让它成为一座典型的NT遗产。他们甚至可以专门为RVW设计一个房间,因为那里确实有他的钢琴,房子的其他部分也与韦奇伍德有关。这个遗址的另一个独特之处在于,他们是唯一一个咖啡馆由当地志愿者经营的NT遗址,志愿者们自己在家烘焙所有东西!所以我们点了一块蛋糕和一个奶酪司康饼。味道好极了。