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GIBSIDE
By CliffBowes
27 May 2007
This week Hilary and I paid a visit to Gibside Hall and estate in County Durham. It is the ancestral home of the Bowes family. It has not been lived in since the death of John Bowes, (of Bowes Museum fame) grandson of Mary Eleanor Bowes, in 1885, apart from a brief spell of renting to a private tenant and its use by landgirls during W.W.1. The Bowes Lyon family (Earls of Strathmore) handed the derelict estate over to The National Trust in 1974 who have renovated the chapel and the stable block. Unfortunately the house and the orangery are in too sorry a state to be re-constructed. This visit inspired the Rondeau which follows.



 
Your home now knows quietus, Mary Eleanor.
A crumbling shell, no glass, a rotting floor.
What once stood proud and welcomed all,
Is now a ghostly pile waiting to fall.
We enter, where once stood a door.

 
A tumbled wall, a gaping maw.
Letting in the Northern wind, so raw.
Gusting through the broken Hall.
Gibside.

Grounds once rich with deer and boar, 
Now gives home to game no more.
I hear the house beckon and call,
Ashamed that it does not still stand tall.
Where sons of Durham would look in awe.
Gibside

 



 

Reviews

Written by Phil (6683 comments posted) 27th May 2007
I liked this. It captured the sadness of the place. There is something depressing about a home that's gone to ruin. It brings out many questions from the romantic in me. 
 
I thought you did this well Cliff. Before you got to the line: 
I hear the house beckon and call 
I already felt its pull. Effective writing. 
 
Never heard of a Rondeau. I assume it's the form you've chosen to write in. 
 
Phil.
evocative
Written by Bagheera (680 comments posted) 27th May 2007
... and thoughtful, Cliff. Interesting how visits of this nature can inspire differing reactions. 
 
Last summer I visited the site of my family's "ancestral heap" in Ireland. I'm currently writing a not-too-heavily-disguised work of fiction based on (amongst other things) research I've done into family history, and visiting the site was an important part of the research (almost as important as defining the PRECISE difference in taste between the local Guinness and the poor man's version available in English pubs ..... :grin ). 
 
Research is still ongoing .... I am probably going to be FORCED to repeat the journey this summer to confirm that the Guinness really DID taste as good as I thought it did ..... 
8)

Written by Lizzy (790 comments posted) 27th May 2007
Liked this too, an aura of sadness about it. 
There's a place called Whitley Court here in the Midlands, it burnt down in the thirties. Still evidence of the fire but it has a terrible sadness about it but also a gteat deal of beauty. 
I think you summed up well my feelings for Whitlet Court. 
Lizzy
GIBSIDE
Written by CliffBowes (176 comments posted) 28th May 2007
Many thanks for your comments Phil, Bagheera and Lizzy. It was, to me, a rather sad place as you all gathered. I don't know Whitley Court Lizzy, but i sounds a similar place. 
My Great Grandmother on my Mother's side was Irish. I think I have inherited the love of the Black Stuff from there, but I haven't visited the Emerald Isle yet Bagheera, I hope to soon - so perhaps I will help in your research into flavours.  
Cliff
Well done - a Rondeau is difficult
Written by Josie (2780 comments posted) 29th May 2007
In addition to what has already been said, Cliff, I would say that you have made an excellent job of this Rondeau. The rhyming structure is extremely difficult, and working within these limitations, you have done an extremely good job. Congratulations!

Written by Fledermaus (3248 comments posted) 30th May 2007
Nice poem about a past that is no more. Yet somehow buidlings in such a state do have their charm... It's all for real, nothing new or fake, only old... And it inspires poems like these ;)

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