Another Visit to Leeds Castle

We've visited Leeds Castle before on Carole's Chatter but I found some old pics of it and decided that it warranted another visit.

Leeds Castle is a beautiful palace built on an island. It is the oldest castle in England.

It is near Maidstone, Kent in the UK. It was bought by Edward I for his wife Eleanor of Castile way back in 1278 and at that stage became a royal palace. 

It was extensively refurbished by Henry VIII with rooms specially prepared for his first wife Katherine of Aragon.  You can still see her badges on a fireplace there. 

Quite a lot later on, the castle went back into private hands.

This is a painting of Catherine who became the wife of the 5^th Lord Fairfax.  It is a super painting.

One of the owners (the 6^th Lord Fairfax) emigrated to America during the reign of George II and became the first employer of a young George Washington!

The Castle came to be owned by Lady Baillie who inherited a fortune from her American mother and she then devoted her life to restoring and preserving it.

The Yellow Drawing Room

The Library – not open to the general public

It comes complete with a maze – but that was only added in 1988!

A Castle historian (Lord Conway) said of other famous castles that 'beautiful as they are and crowned with praise are not comparable in beauty with Leeds, beheld among the waters on an autumnal evening when the bracken is golden and there is a faint blue mist among the trees – the loveliest castle, as thus beheld, in the whole world' – Now that's a recommendation!

Lastly a pic of the annual firework display at the Castle