YUGUE: the turtle of wisdom in the kitchen

Upon entering the Lady De Mohun entrance hall, a visitor to Hordle Castle must choose how to proceed with the tour from three doors - Venus (love), Juno (power), and Minerva (wisdom). This last door leads to another tiny vestibule I call 'Sophia' (Greek for wisdom). And from here you have three more options: you can either leave (not very adventurous of you), or go to 'Horace' (the wine cellar, hardly wise to dwell in those crampt Bacchic depths for too long), or continue on the path of wisdom to Yugue the kitchen.

Why Yugue? Well, in the 19th century, turtle soup was an expensive delicacy amongst the rich. Once the meat had been dissected and devoured, the remains of the turtle - the shell or the bones - were often kept in the kitchen as a token reminder that the prestigious dish had been cooked there (as at Burghley House).

The Chinese word for turtle is pronounced Yugue (like the Kung Fu Master in Kung Fu Panda), and turtles in Chinese culture represent wisdom, probably because they live so long. So if a Hordle visitor knows what's good for one, they must first choose the first door of wisdom, and then choose the wisdom of tasting delicacies fresh from the kitchen. For me, to focus attention on tasting is to practise Mindfulness from which I feel the best wisdom comes. 

I found a toy turtle and decided to dismember the head and legs just as the Victorian cooks would have done, and display the shell as a centrepiece for my castle kitchen.

I had a vague plan for my kitchen even when I started the castle in my childhood. I bought a Victorian cooker back then at a dolls house fair, knowing that one day it would be needed. And later on in the planning stages, I decided I wanted to copy the three arches design of the kitchen at Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire (below) with the Victorian unit in the middle.

First I laid out the wall design on graph paper, being careful to make the centre arch the right width for my cooker.

Then I made the walls, floor and ceiling from plywood, cutting the three arches with a jigsaw.

Then I proceeded to make the bread oven, sink/brick oven unit, and copper boiler washing machine from cardboard with bricks made of egg carton. The Belfast sink is a bought one, made from a plastic mould and painted white.

I have had to put the kitchen on the back burner for a while whilst I finish other rooms that I have started, but her is a sneak preview of what it might be like when I return to it...