I had today down as the day to visit Castle Howard as The Knights of Royal England arrived at Castle Howard for a weekend of chivalry, mounted challenges, hand to hand combat and a Jousting Tournament. I had been watching the weather forecast throughout the week and the forecast for today looked very wet and windy and as it turned put it wasn’t far out in its prediction which was a shame really. I arrived at Castle Howard at about 10.45am having travelled through some very wet weather whilst driving along the A64. I had my waterproofs with me so as I got out of the car I put the wet weather gear on and made my way to the Courtyard, it felt quite strange being by myself, I usually have Jenny, Meg and Gracie with me but with hindsight it was better they stopped at home today in the dry and warmth.

I had some time on my hand so went for a walk around the walled garden for thirty minutes or so, the Alliums along the walled borders looked absolutely beautiful, even in the rain the bees were busily going about their business, there must have been at least two bees on each flower head. As the rain got heavier I decided to make my way to the house for some shelter and have a look round. This was only my second visit around the house this year so it was nice to have a gentle stroll through the rooms, admiring the stunning paintings and architecture. There is a really interesting new exhibition on at the moment which celebrates the history of interior design and decorations at Castle Howard. It was fascinating reading all about the different types of wallpapers that have been used in and around the rooms of the house and reading through some of the ledger pages and comparing costs. After looking around the house I went for a walk through Ray Wood, the rain had eased a little but it was very wet underfoot. There were some beautiful Rhododendrons in flower, their huge florets of reds, pinks and purples brightening up even the dullest of days. After leaving Ray Woods and the Temple of Four Winds I headed over to the South Lake, a pair of Mute swans were showing off their new family of hatchlings, all busily preening on the water’s edge, totally oblivious of me walking past them at relatively close range, usually I would not be able to  get anywhere near them.

I could hear medieval music being played in the arena on the fields south of the house so I made my way over to the main arena. A falconer was flying a huge White Tailed Sea Eagle when I arrived, followed by a Stella Sea Eagle. Whilst the flying display was taking place I headed over to where the Knights of Royal England were preparing themselves for their show once the flying display had finished. 

Four Beautiful Andalusian and Lusitanos Iberian horses were dressed in all the regalia of the Medieval Knights of the Crown. ‘Marlon’ stood at 16 hands and was a grey Lusitano gelding a beautiful looking horse, ‘Azuquita’ (Pinki) was a grey Andalusian gelding with a pink nose, ‘Centuto’ was also a grey Andalusian Gelding and finally ‘Domingo’ was a grey Lusitano gelding and the latest addition to join the team.

The Knights were something else, the leader of the Red Team was ‘Sir Jasper de Barry’ who had been jousting since he was a teenager, ‘Sir Sam of Hever’ rode’ Pinki’, another experienced Jouster and led the Blue Team, ‘Lord Ashley of Hampshire’ one of the younger Knights sits on ‘Marlon’ and wore a characteristic horned helmet he was on the red team and finally there was ‘Sir Stephen of Porlock’ who rode ‘Domingo’ another experienced Jouster on the Blue Team.

The Knights made their way into the arena to the sound of a huge fanfare, and paraded around the arena much to the enjoyment of the visitors, there followed a lot of banter between the Knights and the audience and depending where you where stood had to support either the red or blue team. By now the rain had started again and with a strengthening wind made it quite unpleasant. The Knights now armed with their lances made their way to either ends of the arena, turned, dropped them to a horizontal position and charged at their opponent, full pelt, both missing there targets, they turned, faced each other, dropped their lances and charged at each other again, this time the red knight hit the blue knights shield to win the point. They had several more passes at each other and it ended up being quite an even competition. After a little more barracking between both sets of Knights aided and abetted by the audience they had some hand to hand combat with swords and clubs, all very good and entertaining, the crowds were thoroughly enjoying it despite the inclement weather. The knights soon mounted their horses for another competition namely seeing how many decapitated heads they could skewer with their lances, the successful victors parading around the arena with the head on the end of the lance. Another competition followed, this time the knights had to lance a wooden hoop which was resting on the arm of a huge mannequin in the middle of the arena. Both the Red and Blue teams were very good at this and soon managed to pick up the hoops with their lances.  The ground crew then started throwing the hoops high into the air for the knights to lance as they travelled past on horseback, this took great skill and both teams did really well in catching them.  At the end of the show the Knights and all the crew did a lap of honour, much to the delight of the watching spectators. This was a really good show and kept everybody’s attention for nearly an hour even though we had a massive downpour halfway through the show. I hope they will be able to return next year. 

At this point I headed back towards the house, passing the Atlas fountain which was in full flow and must have soaked one or two unsuspecting visitors as huge gusts of wind kept blowing the spray across the gardens. I continued back to the house and made my way to the Stable Courtyard for brunch and a chance to get warmed up before the short journey home.