This Is Why I Letterbox - Penn & Ink

I had a half day off from work and although it was a bit hazy and a lot hot, Bill and I decided to head to a new destination, one I found on a letterbox clue called  Penn& Ink planted by Lovepartyof4.  As the sign noted, this was the home of William Penn, founder of the state of Pennsylvania.  Neither of us had ever been here before so we were excited to start our day, not sure what we would find.  We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into a tree lined driveway and our first view was of Mr. Penn himself.

I really enjoy taking pictures of things that are a little off the wall and this estate offered plenty of views that I found interesting.

 The gardens were a little out of control which may have had something to do with the very hot and very dry summer that we have been having.

 

 Pennsbury is located right on the very edge of Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. The view across the water is of New Jersey, a state that we  had to be careful not to wander into because of their gun control laws.

 

 The estate as viewed from the river.  There was a man working on the grounds here who explained to us that most people arrived on the water and since William Penn was a man of great prestige, they had a long walk to the house to contemplate how they would handle their meeting with him.  I would have hoped that they would have thought about it before they even made the trip!

 The walk from the river.

 

The view of the back of the house.

 I love to see pictures of old doors and window and there were a few here.

 

 

 

 

 The barn.

 Barn residents were introduced on this chalk board.

 

 The peacock wasn't too happy that we had entered his territory.  He stalked away from us in disgust.

 There were about eight different buildings on the estate.

 

This is the boathouse which is the first and last estate building one passes when entering the estate grounds.

  

For some reason, it didn't feel as though this boat would have been the type used during Penn's occupancy here but it was picturesque.

 We left the heat and entered the museum which was filled with very neat artifacts and stories of the life of William Penn who only actually resided in the United States for a few years before returning to England where he spent much of his time fighting court cases for various offenses and then suffered a stroke, died and was buried in Buckinghamshire.

 This display was our biggest disappointment of the day.  We had thought that the grounds looked really good and well preserved but it was here that we discovered that everything was actually reconstructed based on what historians thought the area looked like during Penn's time here.

Regardless of the end of our visit being a big disappointment, we were thrilled to be brought to this site by a lettebox and I have added this to my list of "This Is Why I Letterbox" letterboxes!