Lyme House was built a very long time ago in the 16th century. It was given to the National Trust in 1946.

Humans are asked to leave backpacks in lockers while wandering around the house. We climbed out of the bear carrier backpack to join the humans…

There were many very old books in library.

A kindly National Trust volunteer found a couple of books for us to view.

The dining room was all set up for a big banquet. This made us feel quite hungry.

There was a panel that could be opened in the room above the entrance hall. The ‘squint’ had a painting hung on the other side. The family members could open it just a little to view who was coming into the house and decide whether they wanted to pretend to be out.

Bears and humans are not allowed to sit on quite a lot of the furniture but the volunteer said we could try out this giant square sofa chair thingy as it was a reproduction of the original. It was a bit hard so we weren’t tempted to take naps.

The bath had a very tall drain plug.

Being rather small we find playing snooker on human size tables a tad challenging.

In the nursery there was a very shy looking panda; we thought he needed a cuddle.

We were fascinated by the workings behind the big clock.

These special tools are used for winding it up.

Outside the front of the clock can be seen at the side if the house between two windows on the top floor.

We stopped for lunch at the Ale Cellar cafe The pea soup was very good indeed; and healthy too. Yum yum yum.

With full tummies we continued exploring. The Orangery looked interesting but it took us a while to get there.

We found a beautiful fountain covered in moss but there weren’t any oranges.

While looking a the fountain we heard several visitors comment on how sweet we looked; one lady thought we belonged in the orangery!

It was very pleasant just sitting on the grass in the September sunshine….

….and having a little nap.

We weren’t able to explore all the areas as just over a month ago some areas of Lyme were damaged in a flood when a torrent of water ran down through the gardens like a river.

We climbed up on the hedge to view the Italian garden.

Bears will be bears and we couldn’t resist playing roly poly for a while.

This seemed like a good place for a selfie though I think the image is a little blurred.

After climbing up a hillside overlooking the estate we found a building known as ‘The Cage’. It was all closed up but back in the old days it was used to watch deer hunts and have banquets.

There was a splendid view up by ‘The Cage’. Here we are with The Peak District visible in the distance behind us.

We were hungry after so much walking about so stopped for ice cream before leaving. Yum yum yum.

There is lots to see and do at Lyme and we missed a few things so hope to visit again sometime.

Horace the Alresford Bear 21/9/19

For more info. about Lyme see: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lyme