Not a trip into ancient history this time, but a visit to the relatively modern Calke Abbey, It isn’t really an abbey but a house, built in 1704.

The outside is deceptive. Unlike many properties in the care of the National Trust, this one has been left pretty much the way they found it in the 1980′s. Which in some places was splendid…

While in others…

The owners of the house were great collectors, and there are rooms full of things in glass cases that I’m certain didn’t want to be collected, or...