Jane Austen festival Day 6

Jane Austen festival Day 6
A Jane Austen Pilgrimage

We drove out to the country via Salisbury Plain. We saw a white chalk horse on the cliff. This one only dates to 1800 or so but Jane Austen would have seen it on her journey to Bath. We passed by bronze age hill forts and iron age burial mounds. They were simply amazing! 

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At last we made it to Hampshire. We approached Steventon the village where Jane Austen was born and passed by the spot where her family’s rectory was. Her brother had it torn down in the 1820s. It was very old. The well still stands with a danger sign. Then we drove up the road to St. Nicholas Church where Jane’s father was Rector. Then a couple in Regency dress stepped out! It was almost like a wedding or a movie!  The 12^th century church was very cold and damp. I can’t imagine sitting there every Sunday. It had memorial plaques to Jane Austen’s nephew and his descendants and other local families. They had some Jane Austen bookmarks and notecards for sale for a small donation to the church.

We walked down the road to see the spot where the house was. The ladies’ skirts were dragging on the ground and the lady who had come out of the church said the other night when it was raining, her petticoat really was 6 inches deep in mud!

The cars picked us up there and on to Chawton. I made the mistake of stopping for the introductory video. It didn’t tell me anything new. In case you don't know... when Jane Austen’s father died, he left the women virtually penniless. They were dependant on Jane’s brothers for income until finally, her second oldest brother Edward found them a cottage on one of his properties. He had been adopted by a wealthy family and inherited two estates. The bailiff’s cottage was renovated and in 1809 Jane, her sister Cassandra, their mother and their spinster friend Martha Lloyd moved in. Here Jane revised Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and the manuscript she called Susan (Northanger Abbey). She wrote Emma, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion at her desk here. Supposedly there was a creaky door joint so she could put away her writing whenever she heard anyone coming but the story seems silly because it was an open secret that she was a writer. Jane loved being back in the country where she could walk around as her health permitted.
The cottage is tiny. It didn’t take long to go through it. Downstairs is a drawing room,  dining room, a reading room . In the vestibule there are prints of illustrations from the novels, portraits of the family members and in closed drawers you can see the topaz crosses Jane’s brother Charles brought back for his sisters and a lock of Jane’s hair, faded from it’s original auburn color. I had seen photos of them and it’s hard to believe I was seeing them in real life. The pictures don’t do justice to the beautiful crosses. Jane and Cassandra must have valued such exquisite gifts from their beloved brother. There’s a bedroom scene behind glass with a patchwork quilt made by Jane, Cassandra and their mother. Upstairs are several themed rooms with artifacts belonging to the family. There’s Jane and Cassandra’s bedroom (they always shared) with a replica bed similar to the ones made for Jane and Cassandra when they lived at Steventon. They have original watercolors by Cassandra and her sampler too. In the Austen Family Room there are toys and games that belonged to the family. I skimmed the Admirals’ Room not being much interested in Charles. There are a lot of reproduction dresses throughout the house and Anne Hathaway’s dress from Becoming Jane.

  I went out to check out the kitchen in a separate building. It’s set up as if someone has just left off cooking. You can make a lavender sachet to take home. The bakehouse in another building and is not set up as if someone still lives there. It houses Jane Austen’s donkey cart she rode in when she was ill. By this time it was pouring so I didn’t get to stroll the gardens or even walk down to the Manor House.

We drove down to the church to see where the two Cassandras are buried. 

Then last stop Winchester. They had a small panel exhibit on Jane Austen and we paid our respects in front of Jane’s grave and memorial window. 

Then I wandered off and while everyone else went in the crypt I finally got to go to a library. I saw the Winchester Bible which dates to the 12^th century. This was really cool to see in real life. I took History of Books and Printing and it was awesome to actually see what I had studied. No pictures allowed. They also have a bunch of printed books made in the Cathedral. 

The Cathedral sells some pretty Jane Austen watercolor notecards that I hadn’t realized were done at the Cathedral and benefited the Cathedral choir or something like that. Jane Austen loved music and I think she would like that. 

Finally, to the house where Jane Austen died. It’s a private home but the guide read about her final hours from a biography while we stood in the pouring rain. It was a sad end to the day. They usually do the tour backwards so it’s not so sad.

As soon as we left Hampshire it stopped raining. We stopped at Beechan Cliff in the sunshine to admire the view once again.

This was my last day in England. I was so pleased to have been able to visit Jane Austen's home and see things I had read about and seen in photos. I really wanted to visit Chawton House, a rare books library and center for research on early women writers in English. There wasn't enough time and our guide was unaware that it was open for tours. I was also suffering from a miserable cold and was exhausted and wanted to go back to bed. My poor health ruined some of my enjoyment of what should have been an amazing day. I shall simply have to go back. I recommend visiting Chawton Cottage in the middle of the afternoon when it's less crowded and on a sunny day when you can stroll in the garden and walk along the country path as Jane would have done. It would make the perfect addition to a Jane Austen pilgrimage. 

I visited a few other spots of interest in Bath which I will write about in a separate post. I was so sad to have to leave. I enjoyed my trip very much and long to return to England when I can stay longer. 

Jane Austen Festival Day Five - Part 2

Jane Austen Festival Day Five - Part 2

 

That evening (Wednesday September 18) I attended a performance of Two Bit Classics Pride and Prejudice - For 2 Actors


The play was in rehearsals and we got to see a workshop of some of the scenes. The actress is also the playwright and she was looking for feedback on her script. She tried to be faithful to the novel and not use anything Jane Austen didn’t write. The director wanted feedback on the action since there’s only two actors. The actor and actress play all the roles and the narrator. They don’t always play someone of their own gender but it worked. Someone pointed out that the clothing styles are very androgynous and that helps. We especially liked that the writer kept in the narration which is the funny parts. Someone commented that the film and TV people seem to think Jane Austen = serious literature and forget how witty she was. The director pointed out the advantage of live theater where you can get the narration. It was funny and the quick change characters flowed well once I got used to it. It wasn't too difficult to figure out who was speaking. Each character has a prop of some sort to help the audience better distinguish between two characters. Also, the actors' voices changed depending on which character they were speaking. Caroline Bingley sounds exactly how Caroline should sound - with a snobbish drawl and Mrs. Bennet speaks very quickly and is always popping something in her mouth. Mary Bennet is represented by her music stand and she's referred to but didn't speak in the scenes we saw. I wish we could have seen the whole thing. 

The play is a lot of fun and if you are able to catch it on tour or see it at next year's festival, I recommend it. I look forward to reading about the finished play.

Jane Austen Festival Day Five - Part 1

Jane Austen Festival Day Five - Part 1

Carriage to Meryton

 

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The carriage aka mini van took us up the hills and outside of Bath and on to the Cotswolds. We saw sheep grazing in the park on the way out of Bath. It looked very similar to what Jane Austen would have seen when she lived there. 

The Costswolds is the largest Area of Outstanding Beauty in Britain consisting of a high plateau and wooded valleys. Cot is an Anlgo-Saxon word for shelter like a cottage and Wold us a Saxon word for rolling hills. Before Jane Austen’s time this area was most open grazing land for sheep but in her lifetime the Enclosure Acts led to building dry-stone walls.

First stop: Castle Combe, a very tiny village. There’s not much here except a medieval church, a market cross and a manor house. This village was used in the movie War Horse.We walked along the street viewing the beautiful, quaint old buildings. This is how tourists envision England! The village looks like something out of a fairy tale or period drama with stone buildings, ivy covered doors and a tea shop in the center of town.

Next stop : Lacock! Lacock is best known to period drama fans. It was used as Meryton in Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Cranford. Lacock in Jane Austen’s time sat on one of the main roads from London to Bath. Lacock Abbey was founded in 1232 by Ella, Countess of Salisbury. After Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539, the Abbey became a private home. Here Henry Fox Talbot invented photography in 1835. The whole village is owned by the National Trust and is a popular location for filming period movies and TV mini series like Pride and Prejudice 1995, Cranford, Emma 1996 and Harry Potter.

We started at the Manger Barn and followed the guide around town a bit. The guide pointed out the sites like High Street and the National Trust Shop used in Pride and Prejudice. Colin Firth rode his horse along the street in the mini series. The Red Lion Pub was used in P&P as the Meryton Assembly Rooms exterior. It’s also used in Cranford as their new store, Johnson’s. The film crew added a bay window over the original ground floor windows. The Lacock Bakery was also used in Cranford. Miss Poole (Imelda Staunton) lived next door and a garden was built for her parrot to take regular airings. We stopped in the old Tithe barn to see an exhibit on the films and TV series filmed here.

I took a look around the Abbey grounds. It’s very pretty. The Abbey was used in the first three Harry Potter movies. I wanted to go to the Abbey to see where Harry Potter was filmed and see the Pride and Prejudice exhibit, but there wasn’t much time. I walked around the grounds and browsed the gift shop. They had a small exhibit on Henry Fox Talbot, the father of modern photography who took some of the first photographs out his window. I picked up a print of one of his photos for the photographer in my family.

Then on to the last stop: Corsham, a Cotswolds village. In Jane Austen’s time it was an important source of Bath stone. Corsham was the inspiration for Charles Dickens' novel The Pickwick Papers; it is thought that he borrowed the name from Moses Pickwick, a coachman who was born in Pickwick, lived in the "Hare and Hounds" inn, and ran coaches between Bath and London. Corsham Court, a royal Saxon Manor House is here and has been part of Lord Methuen’s estate since 1745. Standing on a former Saxon Royal Manor, it is based on an Elizabethan manor home from 1582. The house has an extensive collection of Old Masters, rooms furnished by Robert Adam and Thomas Chippendale, and parks landscaped by Capability Brown and Humphry Repton. The house is open to the public all year round excluding December and is famed locally for its peacocks, which sometimes freely wander about the streets.

On the way back we stopped at Beechan Cliff, a spot where Catherine Morland walks with Henry Tilney and gets a lecture on the picturesque. In the 18^th century, wealthy British men went on a Grand Tour on Europe and much admired the villas and landscapes of Italy and France. When they came home, they hired landscape architects to copy what they had seen on the Grand Tour. Jane Austen was a country woman. She understood the beauty of the English countryside and poked fun at the picturesque craze in her novels. We could see the church where Jane Austen’s parents were married. It’s hard to imagine walking all the way up that steep hill even with stairs. It’s even harder to imagine climbing up there in a dress! The view is magnificent and worth the hike. It's so easy to see Bath as it was in the nineteenth century because not much as changed. Jane Austen loved the country but there's much to be said for Bath and the surrounding area.

I saw a lot of beautiful places this day. They would have been more beautiful in the sunlight but it wasn't raining so I'm grateful for that. The Cotswolds are the loveliest place I've ever seen in England and I'd love to visit more places there some day.

Jane Austen Festival Day Four

Honours of the Table

Mr. Adams the Butler

 

Mr. Adams, a butler in a stately home in 1812 traveled to 2013 to tell us all about setting the table and dining etiquette. Mr. Adams is employed by an older gentleman who likes things done a certain way and NOT the new French way. He noted the differences between setting the table in our time vs. his time and discussed the etiquette of dining. 

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He showed us how to set the table: everything has to be symmetrical. There is one centerpiece and two of everything else. They put a lot of knick-knacks on their table like china shepherdesses and nymphs and other things like that. He says they so often pop up in antique shops in “your time” because they had so many of them in his time and two of every kind.  Then there are two candlesticks. Then you add the plates. If someone cancels or shows up unexpectedly it upsets the numbers of the symmetry of the table.

Blue Willow China was very popular and expensive. It had to be imported from Chinaduring the Georgian era. Then Josiah Spode figured out the process of underglaze blue transfer printing on earthenware in 1783-84. Now transferware is very popular and less expensive.

The cutlery is placed face down -  a tradition that goes back to when men wore lacy cuffs and didn’t want to ruin them by getting them caught on the cutlery. The forks had four tines. He  explained that it’s a myth that “two tines for George II, three for poor George III and four for George IV and later.” He said that’s nonsense and it all depended on the deepness of your pocketbook and how much you wanted to show off. It also had to do with mechanization. They also don’t have separate forks and spoons for every dish. That came later in the Victorian era.

Mr. Adams explained the politics of the wine served: We don’t drink French wine because we’re at war with France. We’re patriotic and drink Port from our old ally, Portugal.

When dinner is announced, the mistress of the house asks the lady first in rank to lead the way to the rest, and walk first into the room where the table is served, then every other woman follows according to rank, ending with the hostess. The same with the gentlemen. The mistress sits at the upper end of the table and the master at the lower end with those highest in rank closest to them. The new fashion is for promiscuous seating with ladies and gentlemen sitting alternately around the table. The best families would serve up two courses of a variety of dishes  spread over the table in a pleasing arrangement and would be set down at the beginning of the meal. The new fashion is for dining a la russe with the courses being served in the modern way. Dessert was the last course. If you dine alternating gentlemen and ladies it’s called promiscuous seating

The table is laid and the food is served. It’s impolite to reach across and grab what you want. You eat what is in front of you. If you are younger and more fashionable, you can ask for something to be passed to you. After the first course, the table was removed and the table reset on a green table cloth for the next course. Then that was removed and the table reset for the third course on the bare table. 

Then the ladies retired to the withdrawing room and the gentlemen stayed to drink more port. By this time, they had drunk so much they were pretty well to go. During dinner if you had to use the facilities, you got up and just went out to the hall where there was a chamber pot behind the screen. After dinner, the men could get up and go in the chamber pot concealed in the sideboard. However, sometimes they were too inebriated to walk so they sat around and passed the chamber pot around the table! Sometimes they missed and watered their neighbor. There was a code phrase they used when that happened… It fell to the servants to clean up the mess. While the ladies sipped tea, the gentlemen got drunk and looked at naughty books. In the drawing room the ladies passed around a bourdeloue which looks like a gravy boat. The ladies wore split crotch drawers to make it easier. 

Mr. Adams was very entertaining. He was not a stately butler like Carson in Downton Abbey. Mr. Adams is a real character. His talk was laced with a lot of humor and audience participation. Everyone laughed and squealed "ew" at the description of what happens after dinner! It was such a different time period. They didn't have the same concept of privacy that we do and would probably find us very puritanical in that respect. It was a great talk and if you should happen to have the opportunity to meet Mr. Adams, I highly recommend doing so.

The Jane Austen Festival Day 2

The Jane Austen Festival Day 2

A Very Public Private Breakfast

On Sunday morning I attended a talk on Georgian breakfasts like the public breakfast Jane Austen once attended in Sydney Gardens. <!

Apparently, before Queen Anne (she preceded the Georges in the early 1700s) people ate beef and ale for breakfast. Queen Anne preferred toast and tea. The English apparently invented toast at this time. In the Georgian and Regency eras, breakfast was eaten by the ladies in their rooms and the gentlemen in the breakfast parlor. Before a big trip or for a special occasion everyone gathered to eat a big breakfast. It was very carb loaded: French rolls with butter if the butter “hadn’t gone off” (spoiled), cakes : seed cake, fruit cake, beetroot chocolate cake, pound cake and of course tea and toast. Marmalade wasn’t eaten yet. That came later. She quoted from a letter written by Mrs. Austen while visiting wealthy relatives. Mrs. Austen seemed impressed by the quantity of food served though she herself only took tea and toast.
Then we went downstairs to the dining room. We had first course rolls and butter, English muffins and butter and Jane Austen blend black tea. Then we had seed cake and raisin, walnut cake like a coffee cake.I love cake for breakfast and I don't like mornings so I would be happy attending a Georgian breakfast! The food was delicious and I liked the Jane Austen tea blend. 

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Pride and Prejudice Readathon

In the afternoon, I attended a Pride and Prejudice Readathon at the public library. The even was kicked off by Adrian Lukis  aka Mr. Wickham and Caroline Langshrie who read the opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice. Other festival volunteers read other chapters. It was fun to hear the novel read out loud as the Austens would have done in the evenings.

An Evening With Mr. Wickham


Adrian Lukis and Caroline Lanshrie read Jane Austen’s most famous dialogues between the heroes and heroines. They ended with Persuasion the last novel and most romantic. They were very good, especially as Emma and Knightly and Anne and Wentworth. Again it was lovely to hear Jane Austen's words spoken aloud. The stories really come to life when stop to really listen.

The Jane Austen Festival: Day 1

The Jane Austen Festival: Day 1

Dear readers (if there are any), I recently returned from the Jane Austen festival in Bath, England where I had a wonderful time immersing myself in Regency culture. I plan to share my experience with you in a series of blog posts. Yes, there will be pictures! If you recognize yourself in my photos, give me an e-mail telling me your name. (aupoohbear [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Friday September 13th 
This evening there was a pre-festival gathering. Since this was my first time attending the festival, I decided to make it to the gathering despite extreme jet lag. I met many wonderful Janeites from around the world, including a long-time online friend from Austria and her very own Mr. Darcy (or more like Henry Tilney because he likes to tease). Some people attended in costume and I loved seeing the clothing up close and hearing about who made their own costumes. It was pouring rain this evening and everyone crossed their fingers for better weather for the morning. I retired early, feeling as if I could star in Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.

Saturday September 14
The day dawned bright and sunny and only a little chilly. It was the perfect weather for a promenade! About 600 people in Regency dress gathered to walk through the streets of Bath to the Parade Gardens in the city center. The variety of costumes were amazing! There were not just ladies, but gentlemen, children and even a few babies in period correct dress! The wide variety of styles was incredible to see. Some of the dresses were exquisite while others resembled more closely costumes.  I especially liked seeing how everyone accessorized their outfit to make it unique. No two outfits were exactly the same. 

At the lovely Parade Gardens some young ladies demonstrated the country dances Jane Austen would have learned as a girl. They dated back centuries before Jane Austen's lifetime. They looked fun and energetic- just the thing for youthful energy. The ladies flirted with the military men and tried to secure a partner for the ball - very much like Lydia Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. 

I saw the site of the Lower Assembly Rooms where Catherine Morland first met Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey. It was amazing to immerse myself in the world of Jane Austen's novels for the morning. 

In the afternoon, there was a Regency Market at Guildhall with vendors selling bonnets, ribbons, trim, jewelry and even a talented lady cutting silhouettes. The young ladies danced again. Downstairs there was a Pride and Prejudice play – a comedy with two actors in one act. They played Mr. and Mrs. Bennet retelling the story and reenacting certain key events like… Mr. Darcy in his wet shirt! Mr. B had a Mr. D puppet and Mrs. B sprayed the puppet with water. It was very funny and everyone laughed. I think everyone got the joke. 

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In the evening there was a Regency fashion show back at Guildhall. Act One took us on a journey back through time through the decades of readers with their Pride and Prejudice books. Then they had people in different Regency style outfits and some vignettes reflecting Pride and Prejudice like Lydia flirting with the officers, Mr. Darcy in his wet shirt, Mrs. Bennet in her nightgown and cap weeping over Lydia’s running off with Wickham. It ended with a wedding dress which apparently is tradition for runway fashion shows. The dress was inspired by the character of Elizabeth Bennet. It’s not historical but not entirely modern. It’s a blend. For my first ever runway show, it was quite enjoyable. If there had been such a thing in Regency times, I'm sure all the ladies and dandies would have loved seeing the latest fashions modeled on the catwalk!

Off to England

Off to England...

I'm off to England for the Jane Austen festival in Bath! I'll be sure to blog all about it when I return.
Yours, Queen Pooh Bear