Brideshead has, since a viewing of the original series and the new version they made of it a few years back, held a certain charm and sad nostalgia that has been lingering in the back and front of my mind. So, it was most certain that I pay a visit to the original location for the filming- Castle Howard in York, which was almost derailed because I could not find a way to get there on the day planned. Fortunately, the extreme pleasure of the spontaneous lifestyle is to be absolutely at ease when things do go wrong (as they often do) and I had but to wait one more day and there was convenient (enough) transportation to take me to that mysterious and haunted place.
Words would be utterly useless to describe the place, even if Proust himself did it. Photos, too, have their very many limitations even on the best of days, so what appears below is but a very modest representation of what I saw. In particular, the Temple of the Four Winds (where Charles and Sebastian drink wine one evening) was for me a special highlight that neither word nor image could possibly convey an adequate impression, and the fact that the sky had become downcast and it rained down in a melancholy drizzle added to the sentimental mood.
As if Brideshead actually did exist, and these were not the ruins but rather what was left when all the people long faded into the twilight distance.
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| not a postcard but very much a dream if i am allowed to use that word |
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| i could hear their echoes as they rushed to bathe in sunlight |
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| it grew dark, ever so dark as i walked towards them. |
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| no charles, no sebastian, no wine- only myself, looking into emptiness. |
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