Our first stop in the grounds was the Aviary. It was a fairly dull afternoon, and it wasn't until I fished out my flashgun the I managed to get any recognisable pictures of the birds in the Aviary.
I didn't do my homework, and can't tell you the name of this building. It is one of the newer developments in the Grounds of Leeds Castle, and has a signature black swan weather vane on top.
This figure was in one of the gardens, and was taken after our visit to the Maze and the Grotto. It was virtually dark, and the figure got a good blast from my flashgun.
We spent a lot of time getting to the centre of the Maze. It is neither a simple left handed nor right handed maze, as I tried always turning left, only to end up back at the entrance. Then I tried always turning right, with the same result. Here are some people who haven't yet reached the centre.
Unlike most other mazes I have visited, when you get to the centre of the Maze at Leeds Castle, you don't have to find your way back out again. Instead, you follow the signs and enter a doorway under the central mound, which leads down into the Grotto.
To the left is the view through the entrance, which takes on the appearance of a face. The central portion of this work is shown on the right, and is somewhat goblin-like. This picture should have included the water below the central figure, but it was the last frame on the roll of film and the laboratory kindly cut the rest of the film away during processing.
As you step through the entrance, to your left, you will see this image. The eyes are hollow and you can see deeper into the Grotto through them.
Once you step down further into the Grotto, you will reach a large chamber with water running down the wall. The wall has been decorated to form a face, and this face is on the back of the face you see as you step through the entrance. Stephen got a better picture of this "face" than I did. I must put it up on his website for him! Studying this face a bit more, I think the central of these three views bears a passing resemblance to Henry VIII. I don't know whether this is intended or not: it could be, as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are associated with Leeds Castle.
The other wall of the "face" chamber contains niches with statues and thrones in them.
Leeds Castle has large populations of both white and black swans, and they feature heavily in the decorations in the upper part of the "face" chamber.
This white deer is on the wall near the exit from the "face" chamber into the passageway beyond.
The ceiling of the passageway is decorated with all sorts of things. On the left we have a composition of bones. On the right are the same bones, the other way up. Although this is the "wrong" way, they look good this way, too!
Here is another installation which looks good when viewed from more than one direction. The right of the two views is actually the "right" one. I worked this out, because these decorations join to the two in the next two pictures, and to do so, it needs to be the "right" way up! Unless I've got all three wrong...
I should really place this decoration above the last one.
The same goes for this one. You can see the place where the red light is glowing just at the bottom of this one.
Here are some more wall and ceiling decorations. One uses bones, while the other uses shells.
The passageway continues, and you can see some more of the ceiling decorations as well.
The passageway eventually opens out into an exit chamber. There is a figure in a pool behind bars, but my photo of that didn't come out. What did come out were the goblin-like driftwood decorations over the doorways and archways in the exit chamber.
Once we'd finished in the Grotto, it was practically dark, and we returned to our car for our tripods, taking in a beefburger each from one of the concession stands as we went by. We discovered on our return from the car that we should have staked out our viewing spots a little earlier, and as a result, we didn't get an unimpeded view through to the castle and therefore concentrated on taking pictures of the aerial fireworks, so I'm afraid there's no picture of the castle itself on these pages.
Why not visit my Leeds Castle Fireworks (8th November, 2003) page, where you can view some of the fireworks we saw.
