Steve Holloway

His footing felt less sure, and then the whispers started.

Describing them as being just about audible, but not understandable, these whispers were beginning to make Tom nervous.

Then as quickly as they started, they finished.

The mist then seemed to move back over the lake and slowly clear up completely.

Tom still has no idea what he experienced, whether it was paranormal or some sort of strange atmospheric weather condition caused by the water, the cold air and the mist.

But one thing is certain, nothing like that has ever happened to him since.

As stated at the start of this episode, for me there is something magical about these homes, these huge houses, which have seen so much over the hundreds of years that they have been in existence.

The stone they were built from, the land that was carved away to lay down their foundations, the work that was put into making their gardens and woodlands spectacular places of beauty.

But underneath the veil of many of these houses lies something else, an alternate existence, where the past still seems to come to life.

where the trees, which were planted hundreds of years ago, have seen the comings and goings of generations of families, and maybe even soaked up some of their memories.

Many of these such places have incredible amounts of concentrated history centered around them, and it's not too long ago that many of these houses came to the end of their reign, with families unable to continue to afford the huge costs of running them.

Then there's also the financial strain of paying the staff which helped to keep these homes running, keeping them clean, tidy, the grounds tended to.

The collapse of these powerful establishments, if that is the correct way to describe the families who owned these houses, really accelerated after the Second World War.

The country was in turmoil, with huge amounts of destruction littering many cities, and all of this needed paying for,

The way that these families earned their money was also changing.

No longer was there a United Kingdom stronghold on the industries which benefited these once powerful families.

The world was changing, and it would be forever different in the years that followed.

As stated earlier, many of these houses were given up to charities such as the National Trust and English Heritage, in exchange for the remaining family members to still inhabit part of their once grand homes, and in many ways, I'm personally glad that they still have connections with these places.

The roots of these families run deep, and the history which they and their houses still hold will always be fascinating, at least for me.

I've been around many National Trust properties over the years and have enjoyed all of them and I highly recommend that if you haven't wandered around the grand rooms of these houses, climbed the decadent staircases, stood in awe and wonder in their beautifully landscaped grounds, then you should do so as soon as you can.