Today involved visiting Haddon Hall and Hardwick House. We began our first tour at Haddon Hall. Some interesting facts about this house include: The courtyard floor was sloped to allow the rain water to run off into the bathroom area and empty into the river. (Pretty smart for their times and why they didn't drink the water from the river), the floor in the hall of the house was covered with straw and would eventually get food droppings, hunting dogs would be in the space, and the smoke of the fire would be in the room. Every spring they would take out the old straw and replace it with new straw. Made me think of what we call "spring cleaning". The furniture in the house was also very different from the other houses that we have been visiting. We went back in time and saw wood and function take over the designs. In comparison to the elaborate and baroque style furniture that we have recently been seeing, I enjoyed seeing a more simpler design. Many of the chairs in the space were of chairs that I had sketched before. The second part of our day involved seeing Hardwick Hall in Chesterfield. The house was built by Bess of Hardwick and she placed her initials all over the structure. The old remains of her families house are next to the house she designed. The stone and a few pieces of the wall plaster can be seen. It was an incredible experience to see the ruins. The house that she built was designed with a lot of glass windows. At the time that she built the house using glass as a material showed how wealthy you were and she created a fabulous house. Going to Cambridge tomorrow...
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