Today we woke up to rain and mist. Hamish decided to take us to the Hell fire caves at West Wycombe. This turned out to be a good wet day activity.
The caves run deep into the hillside above West Wycombe village and directly beneath St Lawrence's Church and Mausoleum (which were also constructed by Sir Francis Dashwood around the same time the caves were excavated). The caves' striking entrance, designed as the façade of a mock Gothic church and built from flint and chalk mortar, was erected in around 1752.
It was dark and cold down there but here I am looking into the children's cave and this is what I saw.
The caves were used for meetings of the hellfire club started by Sir
Francis Dashwood whose members included various politically and socially important 18th century figures.Though not believed to have been a member,Benjamin Franklin was a close friend of Dashwood who visited the caves on more than one
occasion. The Hellfire Club had previously used Medmenham Abbey, 8 miles
(13 km) away from West Wycombe on the River Thames as a meeting place, but the caves at West Wycombe were used for meetings in the 1750s and early 1760s.
There is a really good website here with lots of background information and really good photos.
http://www.hellfirecaves.co.uk/
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