Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the glorious weather and do something we have been meaning to do for ages, namely to visit Llanerchaeron in Cardiganshire (see www.nationaltrust.org.uk/llanerchaeron). Llanerchaeron is a 1790s reworking by John Nash of an older country house, elements of which can still be seen internally. It has all the characteristics of the 'form over function' approach of Nash and his contemporaries - the handsome symmetry of the exterior of the house is achieved only because of the fake windows, which do not actually exist in the rooms inside. The proportions of the Nash rooms are very pleasing, and a contrast to the rooms in the older part of the house, which are smaller and less imposing - but at least here the fireplaces worked properly and they were able to keep warm! Again, function was sacrificed for the sake of the aesthetic. It was, of course, exactly this kind of thing which Pugin, Ruskin etc were rebelling against half a century later when they were insisting that form should follow function in architecture, even if that meant asymmetry and sticky-out bits on houses.
Despite - perhaps because of - smiling wryly at the contrivance of the architecture, I really liked the house - the relatively small scale of the building means that it still manages to be intimate and domestic - one could imagine living there, in the grand manner but without feeling as if one was rattling about in a stately home. The upstairs bedrooms and boudoir, although cunningly oval shaped (even with curved doors!), are modestly sized and furnished. Also, the National Trust has decided to offer a more informal visitor experience, with little in the way of formal routes, and the guides tend to leave you alone unless you engage them in conversation.
There are also two collections of interest - the P.M.Ward collection of decorated household objects which occupies the housekeeper's and maid's bedrooms upstairs, and the Geler Jones collection of agricultural, domestic, mechanical and craft items. The latter is at the far end of the farm yard, and is only open on Fridays, so we timed our visit well - as well as a traction engine and a couple of threshing machines, there are horse-drawn carts and carriages, and even a hearse! Also tractors, literally thousands of pieces of engineering (mostly agricultural) and a saddlery and clog-making shop. I tried on a pair of ladies' clogs, complete with metal tipping on the wooden soles, and although a size too large (should have worn my hand-knitted socks!) they were surprisingly comfortable. Coming straight from the house to the Geler Jones collection, I was struck by the contrast - many of the things here were undoubtedly beautiful, but that was ancillary to their principal purpose of being functional, which dictated their form.
And then we explored the walled garden, which I think brings form and function together - the walled garden is beautiful, but most of what it grows (apart from a few beds, and the Knot Garden) is edible - fruit trees, herbs in raised beds surrounded by gravel walks, soft fruit, serried ranks of beans filling beds surrounded by clipped hedges, brassicas in rows, rainbow chard the main feature in another bed. The edible blocks of planting, within the formal symmetrical structure of clipped hedge and gravel walk, and punctuated with ornamental ponds (complete with waterlillies, pondskaters and a wonderful green glittering dragonfly) seemed to me to create the near-perfect garden. I think if ever I had the chance to create a garden from scratch, this would be my inspiration.
The estate aimed to be self-sufficient, complete with livestock and all the bottling, preserving, brewing, smoking, salting, curing, cheesemaking etc activities which you might expect, along with the inevitable laundry, in the complex of outbuildings attached to the farmyard. Nice little detail - I'd not appreciated before that the sides of the large zinc buckets (in which the laundry was pummelled by a dolly) were ridged, presumably to provide more friction - like having a built-in washboard. Clever.
I'd highly recommend Llanerchaeron if you are at all interested in social history, slightly quirky gardens, architecture beyond the usual stately 'ome, or indeed just walking in lovely surroundings - beyond the walled garden there's more grounds, with a lake, whilst on the other side of the tearooms there is a footbridge taking you to a network of woodland walks. Oh, and the tearoom's not bad either - assorted cakes etc and also light lunches. I gather from a regular visitor that the Cawl (Welsh lamb soup/stew) is rather good, and they even had gluten free cakes which made me happy.
But for me, it's the dialogue between form and function which I shall take away from my visit - and continue to muse upon!
