Historic Mount Bleak House

They even built little drawers right into the windowsill to hold all the cutlery! How ingenious! 

This is Bud. When asked if he lived nearby, he told us that he lived five miles from the park “as the crow flies.” I must say this was the first time I had heard anyone actually use that phrase. It endeared me to Bud immediately 🙂 

This is the journal of Amanda Virginia Edmonds from which they derived all the details for the restoration of the house furnishings. This book is now out of print. 🙁 I would have loved to have read it. 

This book, The Analytical Speller, was published in 1846, and taught one how to spell and pronounce correctly. The book underneath this one was a very old bible!  Superb!

The original wood floors whose creaking made me immediately welcome into the home. 

The beds in the home were made of ropes. The bedding consisted of three layers. The white one at the bottom was filled with hay. This is where the term ‘hit the hay’ or ‘hit the sack’ came from.  The second one was filled with feathers or some kind of down, and the top layer was a quilt. The instrument on the top of the quilt was used to tighten the ropes on the bed if they got loose. This is also where there the phrase ‘Sleep tight’ came into being. 

We loved touring this old home and exploring its treasures, imagining the lives and the people who inhabited its rooms. Bud was splendid and we appreciated the private tour. Hope you enjoyed yourself on your private tour of the Mount Bleak House at Sky Meadows!