On 9 July, a group of about 20 met at Grim’s Dyke on a pleasant summer’s day. Claudia Mernick proved a knowledgeable and entertaining guide, ready with engaging and evocative details.
We walked round the house, encouraged to understand how architect Richard Norman Shaw had built for artist Frederick Goodall a house which incorporated elements from disparate historical styles, in a way that felt timeless and has been so influential it is hard now to appreciate how novel it was.
We explored the grounds, where Claudia explained how it would have looked during the time of later owners, W S Gilbert and his wife. She was a passionate gardener and both of them loved animals, indulging themselves with a menagerie that included lemurs. We also saw the lake which Gilbert helped dig and where he died, of a heart attack, after he plunged in to assist a guest in difficulties, as well the “moat” where the ditch beside Grim’s Dyke was enlarged in the days before it was a scheduled ancient monument.
Inside we saw the hall, where Gilbert once kept a model of HMS Pinafore and a suit of armour and the music room – once Goodall’s studio and showroom, with the extraordinary fireplace which Gilbert designed for it. Several of us chose to finish off our visit with drinks in the bar, once Gilbert’s study, still lined with his bookcases and with the door open to the garden as it would have been when he worked there in an armchair.
