Back On Track To Churches and 'Zeums

We made Cecily's biggest fears come true today: we managed to make a combined visit to a church and a 'zeum! Tired from our travels in Italy, we decided to stick around the neighborhood, so we wandered down the Thames Path to Fulham Palace, the country home of the bishops of London until 1977. This site has been continuously occupied by churchmen for 1390 years--incredible when you stop to think about it. The west courtyard is particularly interesting because it is one of the very rare surviving examples of Tudor architecture in England. You walk into the courtyard, and the place just feels old. We enjoyed learning all kinds of stories about the place, including the scandal that followed the stealing of a salt cellar (a valuable kind of dish used for preserving food) during a visit by Elizabeth I and the back and forth of Reformation politics when Bishop Bromley under Bloody Mary imprisoned and tortured people in one of the very rooms in which we were standing. (He got his comeuppance when he himself was imprisoned by Elizabeth.) We were also fascinated to learn that the Bishop of London--the third ranking clergyman in the Church of England behind the archbishops of Canterbury and York--appointed by George III in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution was actually a Virginian! There's irony for you. Despite the fact that it was another church/museum, the girls seemed to have a good time. The fact that the palace is surrounded by a big park and it was a beautiful spring day helped.