Kristian Mercer

Kristian's Rarefied Regency Tour
Day Nine: Lincolnshire - Walesby, Woolsthorpe Manor, Harlaxton Manor

I've skipped ahead just a bit, so as to press on with the most interesting aspects of our holiday. We returned to England on day 8, rented a car, and drove north to Lincolnshire, to spend a few days with friends from my junior year abroad.

Lincolnshire, in my opinion, is one of the great hidden secrets in England. There is so much to see and do, and the countryside is just beautiful, with gentle undulating hills.

Day 9 started with a walk to the old church overlooking the village of Walesby. Here's my account of the rest of that day, as excerpted from my journal:

The view from the top of the hill, where the church is situated, is all lovely farmland. Very, very green. The church is an interesting mix of Saxon and Norman architecture - perhaps built over a period of years, perhaps due to expansion. They held services until the 1920s here, even though the village moved down the hill.

[We took this photo from the path above the church, heading up to the site of the old village. Note the yellow Viking on the post - that's the sign for the Viking Way, a 147-mile path frequented by ramblers.]

After lunch we drove to Woolsthorpe Manor, the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton. Newton inherited the estate at birth, as his father had died before he was born, but he didn't want anything to do with running the farm. This led to a lot of battles with his mother, who had been gentry before she married and clearly fancied her role as lady of the manor.

[Here is a shot of the exterior, with my friends and me examining our maps of the manor grounds and trying to determine which is the famous apple tree!]

Newton returned to the manor in 1665, as a result of Cambridge closing due to the threat of plague. It was the following year (his "annus mirabilis") that found him making his greatest scientific strides in gravity, optics, and mathematics.

The house was surprisingly large for the 17th century and looked as if it had been very comfortable. Two storeys, with two rooms plus the kitchen on the ground floor and three rooms upstairs. One of these was set up as Newton's bedroom and study, with the dark closet where he used a pinhole and a prism to discover the refraction of light.

The National Trust preserved several drawings which had been scratched into the walls, some of which were believed to have been done by Newton. I found the symbols in the ground floor parlor very interesting - they were supposed to ward off witchcraft. Very interesting in view of the fact that Newton spent a great deal of time pursuing alchemical studies.

On the drive home we stopped for a view of Harlaxton Manor, an amazing Gothic Revival fantasy of a house. It looked amazingly picturesque and huge, even from a distance. We later learned that it contains more than 80 bedrooms!

Recommended reading: Isaac Newton, by James Gleick