Maymont.

One Monday last October, Sarah & I were on a drive back from the Tavern when Maymont was first mentioned. We'd quickly realised in conversation that we'd had similar childhoods of holidays & day-trips to museums, animal parks, stately homes, feeding an appetite for Cultural Activity in later life. (Sarah was even au fait with the National Trust, thanks to her mom's two year relocation to Staveley.)

Maymont!

It sounded spectacular. We drove by the park a few weeks later, Sarah & Marcia pointing out the grounds to me. The name kept cropping up in conversation. I kept on wanting to go. Then I made friends, now I wanted to go With People. Time passed.  I looked at a map; it seemed too far, too obscure a place to walk to. (Definitely With People.) 

  The weather turned warmer. The roomies had a day off with Joey. They went to Maymont that afternoon. I went across the parking lot to the costume shop. Hmph.

  A new actor came in for a fitting, he'd been in town for a week. He'd been to Maymont already. I threw a pouty face. Sarah said she'd take me on the weekend! (I think she mainly wanted to just shut me up. Maybe.)

Sunday's weather was perfect for the outing such as the bleached-out blossom above proves. Bright & sunny but not too hot. We met Julie by the fountain & walked up to the house to check out times for guided tours. I would've been happy to stay outdoors but the tour was just twenty minutes long & our docent was engaging and interesting with her spiel & what she had to share. Glad we did it.

By comparison to some English stately homes, it's not that big a mansion. (If you like Feet, it's just 12,000 feet; otherwise, thirty-three rooms. Not that many. Info, info.)
 
That which I found interesting or remarkable:

- A lot of the artifacts were placed in situ, as would've been. Not so many display boxes but more a case of looking at a room, its furnishings, its ornaments. The higgledy-piggeldy nature of stately daily life. The Dooleys could certainly afford to put their wealth on show but they also donated a ton of money to children's charities & the city library.

- The decor had us step from a masculine library into the saccharine pinks of Mrs. Dooley's drawing-room & cherry blossom friezes into the blue & silver tones of the adjoining room. It was a constant set & colour shift from room to room, like nothing we see nowadays.

- Stained glass in the hallway denoting religious imagery. Unusual for a domestic setting. Done by Tiffany. The Dooleys took their faith & respective denominations seriously.

- Swannanoa was their summer home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. After Mrs Dooley's death, the swan furniture came to be housed at Maymont. Bit too much Swan for me. The swan-shaped bed was impressive but I'm not so much a fan to go with all the ornamental carvings on mirrors, tables, chairs ... Everywhere.

- The tiny, tiny waist of the day dress on display. First thing Sarah & I saw & turned in sync to each other to comment on. Eighteen inches. Whoa. 

To the Gardens! I'm normally a fan of the Japanese influence after time spent at Edinburgh Botanics but it was the Italian Gardens which won me over on this occasion.

 I loved looking down over the walls & across different levels of the gardens.
Bright flowers already in bloom. Shadows from the rose walk. Sundial Wol. 

But the Japanese section had some winning features too.

Bridges, lanterns, big, safe, child-friendly stepping stones (such as even the spaniels might have approved of & dealt with sans embarrassment to their Humans);

Sunbathing sunworshipping turtles which made us smile:

 

 PINK.  

 A bamboo trail (which I ran into, all excited, only to realise that Out meant Down & Down looked Steep), rounding off by the Dooley's man-made but still impressive Water Feature.

Next port of call, the Animals. (Aye, there's a lot packed into the hundred acres.)
We passed Cactus along the way. I got excited again as it looked all Proper & Wild Wild West.

Maymont animals are all pretty much rescue or rehabilative cases from what I understand. This included a sleepy black bear, birds of prey, a sleepy silver fox, a sleepy bobcat. (It was a perfect time for a Sunday afternoon nap after all.)

Up the hill to meet the friendly donkey & the baby goats & the duck-in-a-bucket having a good old splash about . (There were piiigs also.)

Finally, another hill to glance in from outside: Mr. Otter came along & gave us a very showy back-flip display. Pretty cool! (A little boy passed us vocally hating hills. Made me remember someone about ten thousand miles away.  ;)  Hopefully he got to meet with Mr. Otter too.)

Last visit of the day was back indoors, to below stairs where there's an exhibition detailing the life of the servants at Maymont. Again by comparison to English visits & knowledge acquired, what was striking here is one glance at a photo spoke a world of difference. We're talking turn of the century Richmond, VA. That is to say, The South & as such a servant body comprised entirely of African Americans.
  Style Weekly ran a fantastic article relating to this at Christmastime. The exhibition is enabled in part through the descendants of those staff members - grandchildren, great nieces & nephews wanting to honour their family, their past & their heritage.
  We walked around the rooms there, fitted up with kitchen or cold room or wine store attire. Examples shown of the types of domestic appliances used. We thanked our lucky stars & promised not to grumble. Time taken to launder & press six white dress shirts? Eleven hours. The laundry maid certainly seems to have scored the most hours regardless of what type of activity was afoot: be it tea & cake with the ladies or a dinner for eight. 
  A price comparison of then & now was also interesting over how wages or income were spent. A fancy dress from NY? $90. Its later Sears catalogue equivalent: $4.50. Bargain!
  (I was also teased for not having walked over myself sooner when we looked at a map for where the live-out servants travelled in & returned to every day: Jackson Ward. Bah.)

  

Love Springtime.
Love Blossom!

Just outside of the grounds, opposite the gates is, I guess, a shadow dial.
Who wants to use the chart to figure out what time we left Maymont?  Nae cheating, mind!