where I lived, once upon a time ...

... and these were the steps up to our front door.  No, this was not our own castle ... in the late 1950s and early 60s, Naworth Castle was decidedly dilapidated, and its towers and flats let out for rent: my father was working nearby, taking measurements at the Spadeadam testing site for the Blue Streak rocket, and we lived in the Morpeth Tower for three and a half years.  To say it was formative is an understatement: it established a general love of history, but especially for C19th history, because the 9th Earl of Carlisle, George Howard - a very good painter himself - was a friend of the Pre-Raphaelites and of a number of writers ... many of whom came up to the north of Cumberland to socialize and rest.

Today, we were favored beyond measure by GH's descendant and current owner, who has done an enormous amount to restore it - restore it beautifully (including new lead roofs, as seen here) - he took us all over, and showed us so much of what he'd done - and showed me every single corner that I remembered so well (even though I hadn't seen them since we left in 1961).

This room, in the tower we rented, is where I used to have my lessons (my mother home schooled me) - what I didn't know then was it was designed by Philip Webb.

And this was my bedroom - now a bathroom ...

Here's Alice on a bench in the walled garden - best known for the photograph of Tennyson sitting on it.

We walked through some of the grounds to where a lake has been widened, and a weir deepened;

back in the walled garden, just by what used to be a thick bank of nettles that I once memorably fell down;

the flower beds were never as beautiful as this, though our cat once caught five mice and a vole within half an hour in this one.

Just down the road is Lanercost Priory, the local church (with Burne Jones windows and a Morris altar tapestry) -

although not all of it has recovered from being sacked in the Reformation.

And then further along the A69, make a left and you're at Housesteads - a spectacular fort on Hadrian's Wall - and in the middle of countryside that's left me loving the wild ever since.