Day 7: Destination SE - What do the Biltmore Estate and Highclere Castle have in common?

What do the Biltmore Estate and Highclere Castle have in common? Other than the obvious parallels between wealthy turn of the century life, during our visit what they had in common was lots and lots of wonderful costumes from the PBS Masterpiece series Downton Abbey.

A visit to the Biltmore Estate was always in our plans as we thought about Asheville. We picked today to visit because of the weather forecast called for sunshine and temperatures in the high 50s. Like the Grove Park Inn, it's very close to where we are staying--less than four miles. We dropped the $100 U.S dollars required for entry and took the grand tour, with the excellent audio program for added historical detail.

As fans of "Downton Abbey," we were tickled to be able to see costumes from the series throughout the mansion, set in rooms appropriate to their style and period. The exhibit, Dressing Downton, premiered here, and continues through 2016 in various other locations.

The estate was too large to fit in my camera's viewfinder, and photography was not allowed inside, so the best view of the estate is on its web page. But here are some of my photos of the "home" and grounds.

You'll see we didn't exactly come at high season for the plantings, but even so you can see Olmsted's genius in the lines, shapes, and textures of the landscape. It is an accomplishment beyond imagining, frankly, considering he didn't just design the gardens (though that would be accomplishment enough), but the entire grounds.

We saw just a small fraction of the estate's outdoor elements. We'll save that for another day, when Olmsted's work can be viewed in all its blooming glory.