I think the dresses are modern mock-ups in white of court dresses of the same time.
There was a complementary portrait of Margaret Beaufort, complementary in the sense that it exhibited a rather different sort of folding in her headdress. A picture which rather reminded me of one from the northern beauty exhibition at the National Gallery, despite the rather different again sort of folding. Thinking about it now, the Beaufort picture, or one very like it, may have also been included. See reference 3.
Somewhere along the way were some fancy card tables, about the size of our own, which included the rules for the then current version of three card brag. A bit more complicated than the version which I used to play, but the same general idea. The tables included nice little bowl shaped depressions to put your money in while you were waiting to lose it.
On to the kitchens where one of the large fireplaces had a fire, a handsome pyramid of glowing logs, one fairly fresh as its pipes were fizzing. They must have got through a huge amount of firewood in Wolsey's day, with wagon loads of the stuff pulling in more or less all the time in the winter.
Snack in kitchen café nearby in the form of tomato soup followed by chicken pie. The tomato soup, not usually a favourite, was rather better than I expected, while the pie was rather worse. Not up to the standard of pukka at all. I think the mushrooms in it, flat and chewy, may have been the mistake.
Chapel and Great Hall as good as ever and I had a good look at the ceiling of the latter. See reference 1 for the previous occasion. We also took a look at the replica of Henry VIII's crown, oddly tacky at close quarters: a chassis made out of thin plates of gold studded with all kinds of coloured stones - the replica, while rating a serious glass security box, not quite running to the opulence of the original.
A fine grand staircase, with a fascinating mixture of paintings, plaster work and trompe-l'œil, including a very flashy oval ceiling plate. Even in a place like this they could not afford to do it for real all the way through. Or perhaps they just did not think doing it for real all the way through was good value for money, especially in the feeble lighting available at the time. Rather spend the dough on clothes and skittles.
Fine, slightly misty, views of the Long Water and the pudding trees from the Fountain Court exit, from where we wandered down to the wilderness to see how the spring flowers were getting on. Snowdrop and winter aconites more or less over while the daffodils were coming on, not yet in full flood. All kinds of buds starting to swell.
On to the Tilt Yard café where they managed to rustle up Maids of Honour tarts for the whole party. The whole party was very impressed with them, although I thought that that sugar glazing on top had been slightly overcooked. BH explained that it only took seconds and was, in consequence, hard to get exactly right every time. See reference 2 for another occasion. We finished our tarts as the staff were piling up chairs and tables around us, so we thought it time to head back to the station, missing out on the royal cabbage patch on this occasion.
All in all, a good day out, especially on the southwest trains facilitated bogoff. The Palace people have laid on plenty of stuff to pad out the cold old building with - and while I am not that keen on loud luvvies strutting around in period costume, I dare say there are plenty who are.
Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/cumberland-treat.html.
Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/herald-tilt.html.
Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-day-of-bullingdon.html.
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