Apart from the bench the only thing in the room was a prone statue of Hubert's Italian mistress, Julietta. She had been carved as if on a bed with her legs spread to accept her lover. Her arms were clasped behind her head. Her erect nipples pointed at the dome of the ceiling. The carved bed had an unusual feature. At its edge there was a gutter running across the floor to a hole in the wall. Outside, only visible from the top of the tower if you leaned over dangerously, the gutter ended in a gargoyle carved as an erect penis with balls. Water poured into the gutter would spout from the penis falling the long distance to the ground. As children we would carry buckets of water up the tower and take turns in pouring water and watching the penis spray out into the air.
Only later did we find that if water was poured into Julietta's open lips, the lips on her face and the lips between her legs, it would flow into the gutter and so to the penis. Research in the family archives revealed a diary kept by one of Hubert's poor relations. Hubert had commissioned the statue so that it could substitute for Julietta whenever she was unavailable because it was that time of the month. The servants would pour warm water through the statue's orifices before Hubert would mount it, screwing either her mouth or her pussy. Once he had finished the servants would rinse through the statue to clean it for Hubert's next ride.
Julietta, described by the poor relation as 'that Italian hussy', would sometimes assist Hubert to achieve coition with her marble image. She would delight in stimulating him to an erection that anchored him in her stone replica. He could not free himself without ejaculating or else by his erection subsiding. Julietta would torment him so that his erection was prolonged without relief, laughing at his predicament. She even went further. There were holes carved into the marble bed through which ropes could be threaded. She would insist on tying Hubert face down on her marble replica and would thrash his naked body with bamboo canes until the blood ran. Stains still remain on the marble that are said to have been made by Hubert's blood.
Why Hubert endured Julietta's behaviour was beyond the understanding of the diarist. He bewails Hubert's infatuation and his degradation of the hands of that woman. He failed to understand the love that Hubert and Julietta had for each other. They are buried in the family vault. Hubert's wife is on his left hand, Julietta on his right, or at least that is what is supposed to be the arrangement. There is another family tradition that the three of them are buried in the same coffin with Hubert facing Julietta, his penis placed inside her and his wife snuggling against his back. Whether that is true we will never know without exhuming them and that we would never do.
When young men of the family reached maturity we had a tradition that they should try Julietta's statue for size. Over the years the men had become larger with unfortunate results. A few had to be separated from the statue by squirting olive oil around their trapped manhood so later generations decided that the practice was too dangerous to the survival of the family. I cannot understand why they did not find a skilled sculptor who could provide a discreet enlargement to the statue's private parts. That is what I would have done. The cost today would be beyond me. If ever I have real money, Julietta's image would be modified to perform its function for me and future generations. As it is, Julietta has been unfucked for at least a hundred years. I'm sure that she feels neglected and insulted that only an occasional male finger penetrates her.
The next highest room
This room, unlike the one above it, has a fireplace with the chimney leading up beside the spiral staircase to exit above the turret on the roof. It was used by Hubert and Julietta in winter. The windows are double glazed in that there are two windows placed one behind the other in each window opening. That does prevent draughts but the gap between is too large for a good thermal barrier. Air for the fire enters the tower through grilles set in the base of the fireplace. Even today a small fire on the hearth warms the room effectively if it is left burning for several hours.
The same stone bench runs around the curved wall. In the centre of the room is a magnificent four poster bed curtained all round. The bed is very strongly made with massive supports at the four corners. The tester above the bed is also strong and fitted with copies of naval blocks and tackle. The original ropes had become unsafe and were renewed in the 1970s so that the operation of the bed could be understood by future generations.
The pulleys enabled Julietta or Hubert to suspend the other in mid-air. Even with a heavy man strung from the contraption a small woman could raise or lower him with one arm. The same diarist was invaluable. Apparently Hubert would suspend Julietta with her breasts just above his face. He could reach up with his hands or lips to caress, lick, nibble or just set them swinging gently. If he lowered Julietta he could penetrate her without being crushed under her weight. In later years Julietta became very fat and waddled. Sex under Julietta's full weight might have been too much for the elderly and frail Hubert. With the ropes and pulleys he could vary her touch from extreme lightness up to as much weight as he could stand. She could do the same with him.
Originally they had intended to swing together from the harness, to couple in mid-air. A few experiments had ended in embarrassing disasters and they had to be released by Julietta's maid. Although neither were averse to shocking their servants, the impossibility of freeing themselves was unpleasant. On the first occasion they had waited six hours before being released and were cold and irritable. For later experiments they had made sure that Julietta's maid was within earshot and could eventually get them free from their predicament.
It was said that Julietta had a very close relationship, too close, with her maid and that perhaps Hubert had too. The diarist mutters about threesomes or even unnatural affections between the two women but refrains from the salacious details that he delighted in when recording the misdeeds of Hubert himself.
The contraptions surrounding that four poster bed were used by many couples after Hubert's time. When the ropework was replaced in the 1970s much of that removed was of 1930s manufacture. There were mutterings because our grandparents were supposed to have been of unimpeachable virtue. If that were so, why had they renewed the ropes? Perhaps we had been told untruths about our grandparents and they were just as randy as Hubert was or as we are?
The Hermit's Cell
The Hermit's Cell was carved out of the sandstone of the original outcrop. A few feet beyond the opening a wrought iron grille prevented people from entering further inside. The grille could be swung aside from the inside. Beyond the grille a stone seat was illuminated by a hole in the roof of the cave. During most daylight hours anyone sitting on that seat would be back lit amid the gloom of the cavern.
Hubert had been told that a hermit would be a notable addition to a gentleman's pleasure grounds. Unfortunately he had been unable to obtain anyone willing to be that hermit despite the commodious accommodation and the small annual salary. Eventually he had compromised. Agatha, the village's wisewoman, was becoming elderly and irritable with the constant demands of the village swains wanting love-potions and such nonsense. She reluctantly consented to accept the post of hermitess after a drunken youth had hurled imprecations at her when a love-potion had not produced the desired effect.
Agatha wanted protection from most of the unnecessary tasks the village expected of her, and real physical protection from the elements and the drunken pranks of the village's hooligans. The Hermit's Cell provided both. No one could approach her except by the grille and they could not pass that without her co-operation. She agreed to be available for consultations between 10am and 12 noon, and again from 2pm until 4pm but never on Sundays. Hubert's guests had preferential treatment and any villagers had to wait, as was only proper, until the gentry had consulted the hermitess.
Agatha's accommodation beyond the cell, still carved out of the living rock, was a set of rooms including a kitchen with a pump to draw water from a sweet well, a scullery and cold larder, a parlour, a secondary living room or guest room and a bedroom. They were on a higher level and all had glazed windows overlooking Hubert's grounds. Agatha could see anyone approaching and assume her role of stipendary hermitess before the visitors reached the cell. She had her own entrance close to the tower that was almost invisible to the casual eye. Her windows with their expensive glass were inaccessible unless someone climbed down from the top of the outcrop.
In Agatha's parlour there was a speaking tube connected to the statue of the Sibyl in the Grotto. When required by pre-arrangement with Hubert, Agatha, an unusually well educated person for her age and condition, would open a large volume of Virgil and read one or two verses down the speaking tube in answer to questions addressed to the Sibyl. It was suspected that after a couple of years she used her own native wit to find suitable verses instead of choosing them at random. None of the villagers consulted the Sibyl. There was no point. One or two verses in Latin would be meaningless to them.
Hubert's guests would spend many happy hours discussing the application and recondite meaning of the Virgilian verses to the question asked of the Sibyl - a harmless pastime.
Some of Hubert's male guests would approach the Hermitess for help in slaking their masculine needs. If they paid Agatha a sufficient sum she would undertake to provide a suitably willing village maiden who also had to be paid in advance. Assignations could take place in one of the rooms in the Tower, or in a concealed room off the Grotto. One of the conditions was that both parties should be masked and should not remove their mask.
The scurrilous diarist hinted that Julietta was not averse to providing her services to a sufficiently attractive male guest, using Agatha as a go-between, but there is no evidence to justify such a slur on Hubert's faithful mistress. The diarist even suggested that the Lady Margaret, Hubert's wife, was also a party to these masked assignations. How true that is? Who knows?
Chapter 02 While Her Husband's Away
