The Big Trip: Gilette Castle, CT

10/9/15 -Friday - a driving day from NH to Connecticut. It rained as soon as Tom took the dogs out for a walk, but he came back almost dry?? Turned out, when the heavy rain started, some other campers asked him to take shelter under their awning with the dogs to wait it out. It worked out great. I think this is why I like camping so much - we really have met the nicest people everywhere. We are in Clinton, CT at a beautiful woodsy campground. Lots of people here and kids everywhere, as it is a long holiday weekend. On top of that, many of the campgrounds up here in the northeast close after the Columbus holiday, so the last weekend is PARTY TIME. We sat up and watched TV, then read until 11:00 so we could sleep.

Gillette Castle

10/10/15 -Saturday - Tom and I set out to tour the Gillette Castle. It was a complete surprise to both of us. We were expecting an elaborate and ornate castle by the Gillette family (of the razor company), and instead we found a large house made of a pile of rocks! Quite ugly in fact. Here is a picture.

Turns out, the Gillette owner was a stage actor. He was quite famous in his time, but neither of us had really heard of him. His name was William Gillette and he was a hunk in his day--a handsome man with blue eyes--reminded me of Tyrone Power. However, he didn't make movies, only stage performances. When he was about 40, he met Arthur Conan Doyle and read his books. He fell in love with the character of Sherlock Holmes and decided to write screenplays to bring the stories to the stage. Over time, William Gillette became the personification of Sherlock Holmes, and all the pictures or profiles you may have seen are of him. He performed as Sherlock Holmes over 1300 times. Here is a poster of one of his plays.

Poster

Inside the castle, he loved gadgets and especially wood carvings. There were 47 doors in the castle, all hand carved with elaborate locking mechanisms. One of the doors was cut in half to allow it to swing open over a sofa he loved.