We waited for a fairly dry day to take the boys to nearby Hever castle, the family home of Ann Boleyn, the second of Henry VIII's six wives. It's a small castle started in 1270, but it's very pretty with a tudor home inside and lots to look at: from 4 poster beds to suits of armor, from letters between Anne and Henry to original oil paintings of all six wives. It has a propper drawbridge and a moat and a small collection of weapons and torture equipment from the time of Henry VIII, and six rather spectacular German beheading swords that I knew the boys would be interested in.
The Gardens outside are spectacular with a Yew hedge maze and a large lake. One of the previous owners was very wealthy, William Waldorf Aster from the US. He restored much of the castle around 1900 and had the gardens and lake built in an Italian style. He served as the US envoy to Italy and brought back a great number of Roman sculptures to decorate the grounds. So it was that on a wet day in March we were wandering around a garden in Kent past 2000 year-old statues from Rome!
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