Rushton Hall

On the way to pick up my son-in-law, Jens, at the Kittering train station, Susanne drove the rental car into a small village, Rushton, in North Hamptonshire.    We were looking for a place to have coffee as we were early for the train.   Saw a lane marked "Rushton Hall Hotel and Spa" and found a huge manor house and estate with immaculate grounds.   We were shown into the great room, 

a lounge furnished with overstuffed chairs and sofas in a number of seating areas, a fire in the huge fireplace and oil portraits on the walls.  It was breathtakingly beautiful and I stood there with my mouth open, gawking  until Susanne whispered to me, "Stop acting so rural."   Humorous, since that is what I used to say to the girls when they were children and we went to Kansas City.

After we finished our coffee lattes, we drove a short distance and saw Triangle Lodge, a small building with triangular rooms and windows.    Sir Thomas Tresham, of Rushton Hall, also built this curious little house for the keeper of his rabbit warren, a money-making proposition in medieval times.   On one estate, a fifteen acre fenced rabbit warren produced 29,000 rabbits a year which were sold for meat and skins.   Rabbits brought from three to ten pounds per hundred depending on their size and coloring.  

We retrieved Jens and went on for a quiet country week-end at Peacock Cottage behind the National Trust Property ruins of Kirby Hall.