The house belonging to the artist Fredrick Church, not a church house (rather confusing!).

It’s beautiful, perched high on a mountain commanding a view over 60 miles of the Hudson Valley! Built in the Persian style (as you do…..), all mosaics and sloping roofs and little gold tiles glinting in the sun outside – inside is dark and Victorian, very ornate.

Our guide was terrible! I visited with a group of artists and she almost had a heart attack every time one of them peered too closely at a painting – afraid we would brush against a wall and do untold damage. She had hundreds of facts and figures about the construction of the house and the social life of Church (or MR Church, as she corrected us) but knew very little about his work or the context in which he painted and what she did know had to be dragged out of her question by question.

However, the house was well worth a visit, and one can only admire the decadence which allows a handwoven Persian rug to be used as a spill mat under an easel!!!